222 
refer to the publications of Mr. Watson himself. It is intended to 
give with the final volume a full bibliography, not only of the works 
and articles here cited, but of all others relating to the North 
American Flora. The Smithsonian has put the price, in paper cov- 
ers, at $2.00, a few copies, bound in cloth, may be obtained at Cam- 
bridge for 25 cts. extra. 
2. Synoplical Flora of North America, by Asa Gray. The May 
No. of Silliman, just received, announces the First part of Vol. II. of 
this work, beginning with Vol. IL., because it takes up the American 
Flora, where “Torrey & Gray” dropped it five and thirty years ago, 
viz.: atthe end ofthe Compositae. The present publication includes 
all the Gamopetalae after Compositae, 402 pp, 8vo., indexed and 
bound in cloth. ‘The Curator of the Harvard University Herbarium 
will send it by mail at the cost price, $5, or it may be obtained of the 
publishers, Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor and Co., New York. With this 
work, and Mr. Watson’s Index, American botanists will no doubt 
find fresh reason for celebrating the birthday of Masachusetts. 
3. Ferns of North America. Parts IV and V. . This beautiful 
and valuable work keeps well the promise of the earlier numbers. 
‘The present instalment contains a fine plate of Cheilanthes viscida, 
Davenport, lately described in the BULLETIN.—4. We have received 
two short articles contributed by M. Alph. De Candolle to the | 
Archives des Sciences of Geneva, Jan. and Feb., 1878. The one is 
a notice of the report of a visit made in 1876 by the members of the 
Botanical Society of France to the garden of M. Jordan, near Lyons. 
This remarkable collection has assembled in a limited space sixty 
thousands of plants, representing almost all the genera of Phanero- 
gams of France, in numerous examples, and coming from the most 
diverse localities, from the sea coast to the highest summits of the 
Vosges, the Alps, the Jura and the Pyrenees, all in order, ticketed, 
numbered and so arranged as to show at sight the differences between 
allied species : the great majority of them having been under culti- 
vation for many years. The second article, sur /’existence de races 
phystologiques dans les especes végzétales a état spontané, gives the re- 
sults of very careful experiments made by the writer, and, quite inde- 
pendently by MM. Naudin & Radlkofer, on the comparative vigor 
of plants from seed obtained from European localities differing 
greatly in latitude and climate. The difficulties in obtaining satis- 
factory results proved greater than would be expected, and the results 
in the few cases that succeeded are not very determinate, further than 
to show that such plants do differ. M. DeCandolles conclusion is 
interesting, as showing what so able and so scrupulous a naturalist 
thinks of évolution. “La succession des formes demontrée, le mode 
d’évolution et ses causes sont encore dans le domain des probabilités 
et des hypothéses. Aussi quand je veux me representer tel ou tel 
naturaliste moderne traduit devant une reunion de mathématiciens, 
de physiciens, de chimistes, etc., pour donner des preuves positives 
et directes de la transformation d’espéces végétales ou animales, 
assurément j’estime qu’il serait embarrassé, | D’autres naturalistes, 
fidéles 4 d’anciennes idées, lui feraient une foule d’objections de dé- 
tail, et le malheureux se verrait peut-étre obligé d’avouer qu’il a des 
