239 
When the buds in the axils develop so as to form side branch- 
es, the character of the foliage wholly changes. The whorls then 
consist of five leaves, and these are narrowly lanceolate or subu- 
late. I have said when the buds in the axils develop, but there 
is commonly but one branch from the whorl of four leaves. Three 
buds remain dormant, if they exist at all, so that the branches 
have a forked character. In the following stage there are six 
leaves in the whorl. 
There is no intermediate stage between the large round-leav- 
ed verticil of four, and the subsequent narrow four-leaved 
whorls. Natura non facit saltus does not apply in this case. 
In the early quaternary condition of the foliage, one cannot 
fail to note the similarity between many Ga/zwms with broad, 
roundish leaves, of which Galium circezaits may be named as 
the type, and the subsequent growth to that of other Galinms 
with harder and rigid leaves. 
The ‘‘unfinished business” was to examine how far these facts 
might help us to understand the genesis of Ga/tum. The dimor- 
phism in the foliage is interesting, though we find no dimorphic 
flowers. THOMAS MEEHAN. 
Index to Recent American Botanical Literature. 
Ecidium on Funiperus Virginiana.—W. G. Farlow. (Bot. Ga- 
zette, xii., pp. 205-207 ) 
_ In this paper Prof. Farlow describes a new species of 2iczdium 
LE. Bermudianum), from specimens collected by himself in 1881 
in Bermuda, and others this year in Mississippi, by F. S. Earle, 
growing on Funiperus Bermudiana, and ¥. Virginiana. 
Botanical Bonanza.—F. E. Boynton. (Pop. Sci. Month., xxxi., 
pPp- 653, 654.) 
An enthusiastic note on the flora of the region twenty miles 
around the point where North and South Carolina and Georgia 
come together. 
s svsaheaarebeabee sation of.—John M. Ordway. (Papers New 
Orleans Acad. Sci., i., pp. 53, 54.) 
Calatbruc provisotre de 2 Phanérogames et Cryptogames de 
Ja Basse-Louisiane, Etats-Unis a’A merigue.—A. B. Langlois. 
_ (Pamphlet, 8vo., pp. 35, Pointe-a-la-hache, 1887.) 
