vot. ul.| Recent Literature. 367 
The contributors to the first number are Prof. E. L. Greene, two. pa- 
pers; Willis L. Jepson, two papers; F. T. Bioletti, descriptions of two- 
new plants. Teratological notes (reversion of the flowers of Leptosyne 
maritima and Tropeolum minus) by Marshall A. Howe. Reviews 
and criticisms, miscellaneous notes and news. The inside of the 
cover is apparently modeled after some of Rafinesque’s publications, 
containing an advertisement of the journal within the first cover, and 
a list of the ‘' principal botanical writings” of Professor Greene in- 
side the back 
The motto of the journal might fitly be the following paragraph 
from the introduction to Rafinesque’s ‘‘Neobotanon,”’ Part 4: ‘‘As I 
think that I am gifted with a peculiar sharp sagacity in discriminat- 
ing Genera and Species of Plants and Animals, it behooves me to use 
it in order to rectify these objects and the sciences relating thereto.— 
It is what I have often done, am now doing and will continue to do 
as long as I live, not being prevented by the sneer or neglect of any- 
one whom I consider less sagacious than myself, who cannot discrim- 
inate between the most conspicuous characters blended by the Lin- 
neists or modern Blenders and Shufflers.”’ 
Mr. Greene starts out by alluding to his ‘‘reasons for accepting 
the Cichoriacez as a separate natural order, forgetting, perhaps, his 
experience in describing ‘‘ Prenanthes stricta,’ and makes declaration 
that ‘‘for the nomenclature of genera we are not disposed to recog- 
nize any particular initial date.’’ The usual contributions to the 
synonymy of Western botany to be expected ina publication over 
which Mr. Greene has control, follow. Pudsatilla multiceps may be, 
from its very imperfect description, almost anything. ?. Micheneri, 
appears from the character to be a rather more glabrous form of L. 
Bolanderi, that species having cuneate-obcordate petals and 10 di- 
lated filaments, the alternate ones shorter. 
Mr. Greene has of course a perfect right, if so inclined, to reduce 
Potentilla Breweri to P. Plattensis, but why not call it var. Brewert 
instead of var. /eucophylla, more especially as leucophylla has been 
used in the genus already several times. Pofentilla ambigens and 
P. scopulorum are perhaps of that genus, though experience has 
shown that it is not always safe to assume even that degree of ac- . 
curacy on the author's part, and there is hardly anything in the de- 
scriptions to prove that he is not describing forms of, Barbarea vul- 
