268 Recent Literature. [ ZOE 
mann; a description of a new species of Agave (A. Angelmanni 
Trel.) and some notes with a plate on Parmelia molliuscula. 
More than a third of the volume is occupied by reports of the 
annual banquets of the trustees and gardeners, and the annual flower 
sermon. Some of our English botannical friends are inclined to 
poke fun at this feature of the Report, and it must be confessed 
that a lot of bombastic after-dinner speeches do not combine well 
with scientific papers, but in fair justice it must be admitted that 
the authors of the scientific papers should not be held responsible. 
K.B. 
The North American Pyrenomycetes. By J. B. Etuis and B. M. 
EvERHART. This book is an octavo of nearly 800 pages, with 41 
excellent plates drawn by F. W. Anderson, whose early death we 
have had recently to deplore. Very little critical work has been 
done excepting in the Erysiphez, which were elaborated by Prof. 
T. J. Burrill. Scarcely any attempt has been made to indicate the 
conidial and other stages of the species and the specific keys are 
of the slightest; as for instance in Spherella, where the sections of 
the genus are given as: 
Parasitic on leaves of dicotyledonous trees and shrubs. 
On leaves and cones of coniferous trees. — 
On stems and leaves of dicotyledonous herbaceous plants. 
On monocotyledonous plants. 
On cryptogamous plants. 
This may be as good a key asany, where the principal distinc- 
tionsamong the species appear to be the different plants on which they 
grow, with an occasional variation of a few micromillimetres in size, 
but this being the case the want of an index of hosts is especially 
remarkable. The volume on account of the large type and spacing 
is unduly large, and the plates though excellent are in many cases 
of species which have already been figured, and render the book 
too expensive for the masses, while to the specialist it is entirely 
unnecessary. K.B. 
MOO D> 
Contributions from the U. S. Herbarium, vol. i, No. 5. This 
publication contains four papers. The first is a list of the plants 
collected by Dr. Palmer in 1890 on Carmen Island. Drymaria 
diffusa, Desmanthus fruticosus, Passiflora Palmeri, Houstonia fruti- 
cosa, Brickellia brachiata var. glabrata and Euphorbia Carmenensis, 
f 
