33 



etc. 



Hi I a} 



tribe Zoysieae, according to Bentham.'* 



There are three described species of Pleicraphis from the South- 

 west : 



1. p. Jamcsii, Torr., in Ann. Lye, N. Y., i, 1824, p. 148 t. 10. 

 M. E. Jones has distributed this in his Colorado collections. 



2. F. mutica, Buckley in Proc. Acad., Phil., 1862, p. 95.' There 

 are specimens of this in the Herb. Acad. Phila., and I have speci- 

 mens collected by Frank Tweedy in Tom Green County, Texas. 

 1880. Nos. 760 and 2108 of C. Wright are the same (Gray in Proc' 

 Acad. Phil, 1862, p, 335.) 



3. P. rigida, I'hurber, Gram. Mex. Bound, ined., published in 

 Bot. Cal. n, p. 293. It is No. 494 of E. Palmer's collection, 1877. 



These three species are now placed in the genus Hilan'a, and if 

 due credit is to be given their authors they should be written Hilaria 

 Jamesii, (Torr.) Benth., If. mutica, (Buckley) Benth., and H. 

 (Thurb.) Benth. 



Plilaria cenchroideSy H.B.K. The single species heretofore in- 

 mcluded in this genus was distributed with E. Hall's Texan plants, 

 No. 846, and it is in Pringle's sets of Pacific Slope Plants, collected 



J 



F. Lamson Scribner. 



Theory of Lichens.— Dr. J. Miiller of Geneva, Switzerland, has 

 recently pointed out an interesting confirmation of Dr. Minks's theory 

 of lichens in a Bra;^ilian Coenogonium, In this genus, one or more 

 species of which occurs in the Southern States, the gonidial system is 

 composed of a series of green cells contained in a longitudinal cen- 

 tral tube, and surrounded by slender colorless filaments ; the 

 former corresponding, in the Schwendener theory, to the algoid ele- 

 ment, and the latter to the fungoid. In the new species, C. pa7mosum^ 

 Mull., Arg. in Flora^ 1881, p. 234, a filament of the latter kind was 

 found in a portion of its length to contain gonidia resembling th 

 of the algoid tube, but afa certain point it suddenly contracted to 

 the form of a cone a little longer than broad, and continued as a 

 slender capillary tube, in which the internal cavity w^as continuous 

 with that of the larger portion ; and in this portion of it were clearly 



perceived the microgonidia in their natural form, size and arrange- 

 ment. 



It follows from this, says Dr. Miiller, that one and the same cell, 

 at one end enlarged and bearing gonidia, would be the theoretic 

 alga, and at the other contracted and containing microgonidia would 

 be the theoretic fungus, proving absolutely the falsehood of the 

 theory, all is lichen, and only lichen, and both sorts of tubes, so dif- 

 ferent at first sight, are only different states of evolution of one and 

 the same organ. 



New Bedford, Mass. 



H. W. 



New Station for Arceuthobium, Central New York has, in 



days gone by, been the home of many prominent botanists, and a 

 r^ew discovery in this section is of rare occurrence, I have the. 



