491 
Urmaria Urmaria (L.) (Spirea Ulmaria L. Sp. Pl. 490 (1753). 
Ulmaria palustris Moench, Meth. 663 (1794).) 
This plant was collected by me during the past summer at 
Trois Pistoles, in the province of Quebec. It was growing by a 
wire fence near the track of the Intercolonial Railway and was 
quite wild. There is a specimen of this species in the Herbarium 
of Columbia College, collected by W. M. Whitfield at Lenox, 
Mass., July 11, 1889. Who can furnish information of other 
American localities ? 
Curiously enough, the binomial used above appears not to 
have been published before. Joun HENDLEY BARNHART. 
Tarrytown, N. Y., October 5, 1894. 
The Columbia College Herbarium has within the last month 
been re-arranged, the families now following the sequence of 
Engler and Prantl’s “ Natiirliche Pflazenfamilien;” the genera 
will gradually be placed in the sequence of that work as the vol- 
umes are completed. The advantages of this system are: ( 1) 
The indications it affords of the phylogeny of the groups. (2) 
The convenience of having the arrangement of the whole collec- 
tion based on one set of volumes. The mechanical work of mov- 
ing several hundred thousand mounted sheets appeared at first to 
be very considerable, and as the space available for stacking is | 
limited, we delayed the work long after we had decided to under- 
take it, but it has really been accomplished with ease and rapidity, 
and we are confident that much has been gained. The « Natiir- 
liche Pflanzenfamilien,” having appeared so very recently, con- 
tains many more genera of Spermatophyta than Bentham and 
Hooker’s ‘Genera Plantarum,” and a great many specimens 
Which in some herbaria have been placed at the ends of the 
orders and in others interspersed through the generic sequence 
will now find their place in the series. 
Of course no student will be willing to accept all the generic 
limitations of Dr. Engler’s books any more than he was willing to 
accept all of Bentham and Hooker’s, but the recent publication 
of the former gives it a distinct advantage. It is to be hoped 
_ that a generic index to the whole work will be printed. ee 
N. L. Brirrox. = 
