168 
Cercis.—C. G. Lloyd. (Drugs and Medicines, N. A., ii., pp. 
122-125; six figures.) 
Claims of Botany.—W. W. Bailey. (Education, vii., 704-713.) 
We are pleased to note in these arguments some points 
which the teachers of this metropolis will heartily substantiate. 
We fear that ‘‘ text-book instruction” is yet entirely too prevalent, 
and many are the teachers who know not the common plants 
around them. There is still too much striving after words and 
definitions, statements and compositions, no matter how they are 
arrived at, and plants as objects to look at and to watch and think 
about are not so important as they are to make up into lessons. 
Drawing is not sufficiently used as an accessory and test, and 
children are more familiar with the conventionalized forms of 
their portfolios than with the natural objects. | Not only is there 
an increasing demand for teachers, but governesses, companions 
and superior nurses with the knowledge sufficient to answer the 
questions of children are wanted and cannot be had. 
Contributions to American Botany, X1V.—Sereno Watson. (Proc. 
~ Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci., xxii., pp. 396-481; reprinted.) 
The first seventy pages of Dr. Watson’s latest ‘‘contribution ” 
are devoted to an enumeration of the plants collected by Dr. 
Edward Palmer, in the State of Jalisco, Mexico, in 1886, at and 
about the city of Guadalajara. The collection includes 675 
species, over ten per cent. of which are new. Corythea is a new 
genus of Euphorbiacee and Prochnyanthes a new genus of 
Agavee. The determinations of Gamopetalez are by Dr. Gray, 
and among them we find a new genus of Asclepiadex, Me//i- 
champia. Dr. Vasey finds several new species of Graminez, and 
Acrostichum araneosum, Notholena aurantiaca and Cheilanthes 
Palmeri are new ferns by Professor Eaton. 
The second part gives descriptions of new species of plants 
from various North and Central American localities. Those from 
the United States are as follows: Cardamine Lyallii,; Arabis 
confinis, which includes all the eastern plants referred to A. 
- Drummondii; A. Bolanderi, A. perennans, A. Beckwithit, A. 
_ Lemmonii, A. Parishii, and A. pulchella, M. E. Jones, all western; 
 Thelypodium stenopetalum, Silene longistylis, Engelm.; Lupinus — 
Cusickii and L. Schockleyi; Astragalus Hendersoni, A. accidens 
