99 



easily reached from Narragansett Pier or Watch Hill, to all collectors 

 who come to the Plantations. W. W. Bailey. 



Providence, R. I., Sept. lo, 1880. 



80. Botanical News-— The Botanisches Centntlblatt is the title 

 of a new weekly journal published under the editorship of Dr. O. 

 Uhlworm^ of Leipzig. The object of the publication is to supply 

 brief abstracts in each issue of every important new independent pa- 

 per m a scientific journal, in all branches of botanical science ; a com- 

 plete index to titles of recent botanical literature in all countries ; 

 brief original communications ; reports of museums, gardens, bo- 

 tanical explorations, etc. ; personal news, etc. Dr. Uhlworm has se- 

 cured the co-operation of correspondents in the various towns of Ger- 

 many, France, England, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Greece, 

 Russia, Holland, etc., and invites the further assistance of botanists 

 in all countries to render the Centralblatt as complete ^nd useful as 

 possible- The Editor's address is Sudstrasse, 82, Leipzig. 



Trimen's Journal of Botany for July contains : Enumeratio 

 Acanthacearum Herbarii Welwitschiani Angolensis, by S. LeM. 

 Moore; Cardamine pratensis and its Segregates, by G. Nicholson; 

 On Lattakia Tobacco, by W. T. Thiselton Dyer; Botany of the 

 British Polar Expedition, by H. C- Hart ; and On a Collection of 

 Ferns made by Dr. Beccari in Sumatra, by J. G. Baker. 



In the Botanical Gazette for July, Mr. Meehan discusses the vitality 

 of pine seeds; Dr. Gray calls attention to the proterandry oi Ere- 

 ?nurus robushis ; Prof W. W. Bailey records a case of albinism in 

 Arethusa bulbosa ; Mr. L. H. Bailey gives a short list of Michigan 

 Lake shore-plants ; and another writer notes the occurence of six 

 fungi on Anemone iiemorosa. The Editor of the G^as^f//^ announces his 

 intention of closing his sanctum for two months, and of partaking of 

 a luxury seldom accorded to journalists — that of a vacation. 



Origin of Floivers through Insect Selection. — -Not long since, Dr. 

 Herman Miiller, it will be remembered, published a work in which 

 he endeavors'^to explain the existing variations in the forms of flowers 

 on the principle of "selection." His supposition is that insects of 

 different tastes breed peculiar flowers just as men breed peculiar 

 rac^s of cattle. Carrion-loving insects breed their kind of flowers ; 

 long-tongued insects the tubular kinds ; and many other classes of 

 insects have each bred the flowers they love best. Dr. MUller has a 

 note in Nature of July 8th, in which he points out that the European 

 Saxifraga umbrosa has been adorned with its present brilliant colors 

 through selection by dipterous insects of the family Syrphidae. He 

 says : 



''Among Diptera the most assiduous visitors of flowers are cer- 

 tain Syrphidae, which, elegantly colored themselves, are fond of 

 splendid flower-colors, and, before eating pollen or sucking nectar, 

 like to stop awhile, hovering free in the air, in front of their favor- 

 ites, apparently fascinated, or at least delighted, by the brilliancy of 

 their colors. Thus I repeatedly observed Syrphus balteatus hovering 



before the flowers of Verbascum nigriini, and often before Melano- 

 stoma mellina ; Ascia podagficah^iovQ Veronica chamaedrys ; and m 



