255 
During the present year, Mr. Roessler of New Haven, Ct., has per- 
fected a handy press, which he calls the “ Portable Wire Plant-press.”’ 
It is similar in design, but in convenience and general effectiveness 
‘Is perhaps an improvement on the one described by Prof. Wood, 
having an ingenious arrangement for fastening quickly and securely. 
Prof. Eaton, of Yale College, recommends it highly and says: “I 
have found that, by the use of a press of this kind, even kelps and 
rockweed [marine Algae] may be readily dried, especially if the press 
be placed in a current of heated air, as, for instance, over a common 
hot-air register.’’ The reasonable price at which the press is offered 
—$1.75 each—will probably give it a large sale. The size of the 
press is 16% by 113 inches. It would be well for those botanists 
intending to use it to have two presses, one for a collecting portfo- 
lio, the other for a press. 
As most of our space has been devoted to the wire-press, I shall 
defer consideration of the other method, with the writer’s way of 
managing his green specimens, until another article. 
§ 255. Plants introduced with ballast and on made land. 
Since the publication by Aubrey H. Smith, Esq., in 1867, of his 
“ Notes on some colonies of Plants,” in the Proceedings of the Acad- 
emy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, increased attention seems 
to have been given to the observation of plants introduced through 
the agencies of commerce. In 1877, Mr. Burk published in the same 
Journala list of 125 foreign species collected by himself and Messrs. 
Parker and Martindale, during the ten years previous, from the 
docks and ballast deposits at Philadelphia, including those given by 
Mr. Martindale in the Botanical Gazette for November, 1876. In 
the latter publication, in August, 1877, Mr. Martindale mentions 
some 36 species collected during that year, including a few not pre- 
viously observed; and in May, 1878, Mr. Mohr, of Mobile, gives a list 
of some 64 species collected by him about the ballast-grounds 
of Pensacola, during the ten years preceding, embracing about a 
dozen foreign species not in Mr. Burk’s list. Although quite a num- 
ber of plants that have been for several years more or less widely 
established in our N. Y. District are included in all the lists above 
referred to, there remain at least a hundred new immigrants, chiefly 
through ballast deposits, found during the last ten years, and not 
hitherto reported within our local boundaries. 
From the vast commerce of New York it might be supposed that 
a proportionately large number of new plants would be found appear- 
ing in our neighborhood through similar agencies. But our crowded 
wharves and the rapid improvement of waste or filled-in lands have 
not usually permitted deposits of ballast to remain undisturbed long 
enough for the growth of plants. It is probable, nevertheless, that 
our local botanists have not been as alert as might be in seizing such 
opportunities for observation as have occasionally arisen. 
Some ten years ago the Central Rail Road of New Jersey filled in 
about 300 acres of NewYork Bay, extending south-westerly from Jersey 
City to Communipaw. The new land thus made runs about three- 
quarters of a mile in length westwardly from the Company’s Depot and 
Ferry Landing, by about a half mile in breadth. It was filled in to 
