VOL. I.] Recent Literature. iS9 



cartilaginous, semi-persistent, spiny-toothed leaves, here and there with only very 

 few teeth or quite entire; the acorns proportionately smaller, of the same short 

 oval shape, or often elongated from an unusually small, scarcely knobby and some, 

 times peduncled cup. We feel satisfied that we might have abundant material to 

 characterize several distinct species, certainly four or five well-marked forms, and in- 

 deed they have been considered such. The first is Nuttall's Qnerais Gamlellii 

 (Q. \tellata var. Utahenns, DC. Prod.); the second is Q. alba var. Gunnisom of 

 Torrey; the third, with acutish lobes or coarse teeth, is Torrey's old Q. ictuhdata 

 of Long's Expedition, the first oak obtained from these mountains, and described 

 about fifty years ago; the fourth, from the edge of the precipice itself, is 

 what has often been mistaken for Torrey's Q. Emoryi, or what has been named Q. 

 pun-^'ens Liebm., in part; with it occur entire-leaved forms, which seem to unite 

 with this as a fifth form the G- .-'-^^^^ Liebm. * * * In herbarium 



specimens they all appear distinct enough, but, looking around us, the very abund- 

 ance of material must shake our confidence in our discrimination: within the com. 

 pass of a few hundred yards we find not only the forms above distinguished, but 

 numbers of others, which are neither the one nor the other, but which are inter- 

 mediate between them, and clearly unite them all as forms of one single extremely 

 polymorphous species. If one oak behaves thus, why not others? Thrown into 

 a sea of doubt, what can guide us to a correct knowledge?" 



Now Mr. Greene raises these forms again to specific rank, and 

 among them creates a new one. If this polymorphous oak is to be 

 divided into species in this manner, many more equally as good can 

 be made. The persistence of the leaves was carefully observed 

 several years, and it certainly affords no good character for specific 

 distinction of the forms of this oak. Each thicket has its own pe- 

 culiarities of leaf, acorn, etc., and the different bushes have proba- 

 bly an underground connection. Adjoining thickets or clumps hav- 

 ino- similar leaves and acorns vary much in the time at which the 

 leaves fall, some lose them with the approach of cold weather, on 

 some they dry and persist for different lengths of time, some drop 

 them gradually through the winter, and on some they persjst^grjen 

 till new ones appear in the spring. 



T. s. B. 



from the U. S. National Herbarhmi, No 



J 



J. N. Rose. The Botani- 



cal Division of the Agricultural Department makes in this publication 

 a commencement towards utilizing the quantity of material accumu- 

 latino- from various sources in the National Herbarium. The plants 

 treated of in this number are recent collections of the veteran natu- 

 ralist Dr. Edward Palmer, whose notes on the growing appearance 

 and uses of them add greatly to the interest of its pages. The work 

 is a credit to the department, although the prouf-readmg is very im- 



