171 
Smith, Hon. F. R. M.S. (Proc. American Society of Micro- 
scopists, 1886, pp. 30 66; five plates, colored.) 
Prof. Smith is well known as a life-long student of the Diato- 
mace, also as the distinguished author of the system of classifi- 
cation now so generally adopted, hence his conclusions carry 
with them the weight of acknowledged authority. The paper is 
too long to give a synopsis of, but the subject is treated under 
the following heads: I. The Structure of the Diatom Frustule, 
the Nature of the Envelope and the Typical Variations. Wl. Dis- 
tribution and Arrangement of the Internal Contents. 
In summing up the first part, he says: “It appears that for 
all diatoms there is a general type of structure, that the de- 
parture from the normal form is regular and often quite gradual, 
and it is to be regretted that minute considerations, such as varied 
outline, difference in size, finer striation, abnormal forms and the 
like, have sufficed so often for proposing new species, to say 
nothing about genera; whereas, looking at the subject from a 
more rational standpoint, and guided by safer principles of philos- 
ophizing, one may well be assured that nearly half the present 
admitted genera, and many more of the species, might be blotted 
out with advantage.” OFF s tea © 
Lima Beans in Germination— Experiments with.—W. J. Beal. 
(Amer. Nat., xxi., pp. 576,577; one plate.) 
Lindera Benzoin.—C. G. Lloyd. (Drugs and Medicines N. A., 
ii., pp. 117-119.) 
List of Native and Introduced Plants observed in Flower in the 
Vicinity of Salem during the Spring of 1886, on or before 
May ist.--J. H. Sears. (Bull. Essex. Inst., xviii., pp. 95-98.) 
A list of about 150 species with common names. 
List of Recently Identified Fossil Plants belonging to the Uuited 
States National Museum, with Descriptions of several new 
Spectes.—Leo Lesquereux. (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1887, 
pp. 21-46; four plates.) | 
An enumeration of 203 species, of which the following are 
new: Pecopteris Powellit, Cycadeo-spermum equilaterale, C. fa- 
boideum, C. subfalcatum, Caulinites Beckeri, [rites Alaskana, 
Quercus Crossii, Andromeda linearifolia, Vaccinium Coloradoense, 
