174 
ries assume more and more importance.” Where do we stand? 
“We stand where Germany formerly stood. Our country is so 
large, and some parts of it so little explored, that descriptive 
work has by no means reached its limit. The only question is 
how to have it well done.” ‘Strange as it may seem to some 
ears, it appears to me that histological and developmental work 
is what is best adapted to non-professional botanists.”  “‘ Inas- 
much as the larger libraries and collections are in the colleges 
and larger cities, descriptive work, if itis not to be shabbily done, 
must be done by persons connected with colleges, having ready 
access to herbaria and libraries.” ‘‘If we should look to college 
professors and a few experts for what we still have to be done in 
systematic botany, and to those connected with the more impor- 
tant laboratories for physiological work of the higher grade, 
histology and the study of life-histories are subjects of vast ex- 
tent, and, in most of their phases, can be studied successfully by 
private individuals as well as by professionals.” ‘In the older 
parts of the country, including even the Mississippi Valley, it 
seems to me that the rising generation would make the best use 
of their opportunities by working out some of the many impor- 
tant questions in histology, and in studying the life-histories of 
different plants, more especially cryptogams.”’ 
Tulostoma mammosum—The Growth of.—-C. E. Bessey. (Amer. 
Nat., xxi., pp. 665, 666.) 
Botanical Notes. 
Report on the Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of 
H. M.S. Challenger, 1873-76.—Part IV., Diatomacee. Count 
F. Castracane; pp. 178; 30 plates, 393 figs. 
The literature of the Diatomacez is so scanty that any addi- 
tion to it is joyfully welcomed, especially when, as in this instance, 
we have the summing up of the results of a famous scientific ex- 
pedition. We cannot help wishing, though, that authors would 
refrain from creating new species upon such slight pretexts, for 
many of the forms figured are clearly referable to species that 
have been already described by others under different names, 
and so the list of synonyms is unwarrantably increased to the 
confusion of the skilled student and utter bewilderment and dis- 
