11 
various sources, in order that we may have wild forms to which 
our cultivated types can be referred. Our so-called modern vege- 
tables, introduced as novelties, often seem to be such only because 
we are unfamiliar with what our predecessors possessed.” 
Fungt.—New Kansas. J. B. Ellis and W. A. Kellerman. (Journ. 
Mycol., ii., pp. 3-4.) Eight new species are characterized. 
Fissidens.—Notes on the European and North American Species 
of Mosses of the Genus. William Mitten, A.L.S. (Journ. 
Linn. Soc., xxi., pp. 550-560.) 
Three pages of introductory remarks and references, followed 
by the analytical key, precede the specific descriptions. Of these 
there are in all thirty-nine. The key is sub-divided into: I. Forms 
terrestrial; II. Forms aquatic; and in the latter he restores 
Conomitrium Julianum, Mont., and C. Hallianum, Sull. and Lesq., 
to the genus Fiss¢dens. ‘This survey is rendered possible by 
the recent publication of Braithwaite’s British Moss Flora, and 
the Manual of North American Mosses.” 
Flora of Virginia.—Contributions to the Knowledge of the older 
Mesozoic. William Morris Fontaine. (Monographs U. S. 
Geol. Survey, vi., pp. 144, 54 plates.) 
An account of the geology of the mesozoic areas, forming 
part I. of the work, precedes the account of the fossil flora. 47 
_ species of plants are there described, and nearly all figured. These 
are divided as follows: Eguzsete, 5 species; Ferns, 25 species ; 
Cycads, 12 species, and the fruit of a thirteenth; Conifere, 2 spe- 
cies, and three plants whose botanical affinities are doubtful- 
From his investigations of these plants Professor Fontaine con- 
cludes that the flora is not older than that of the Rhetic beds of 
the Old World, which are at the very summit of the triassic sys- 
tem, or the base of the jurassic. It is essentially the same as 
that of the mesozoic strata of North Carolina, an account of 
which, taken from the work of Dr. Emmons, is appended, with 
descriptions and figures of plants recorded by him in ‘‘ American 
Geology,” Part IV. 
Jamaica Ferns of Sloane's Herbarium.—On the. G.8. Jenman, 
F.L.S. (Journ. of Bot., xxiv., (1886), pp. 14-17, to be 
continued.) 
