Hv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



" Nomenclator Botanicus," to contain the synonomy of all 

 grades of plants higher than the specific ; Dr. A. Engler has 

 published a monograph of the genus Saxifraga; Regel, a re- 

 vision of Crataegus and other genera ; and Maximowicz has 

 continued his investigation of Japanese species and their re- 

 lations to allied American ones. In the botanical journals 

 there have been more or less extended revisions, as of some 

 liliaceous genera, by J. G. Baker ; of the Caryophyllacew, by 

 Rohrbach (posthumous) ; of Marsilia and JPilutaria, by A. 

 Braun ; and of the Cyperacew, by Bockeler ; and also contri- 

 butions to morphology and biology by Hegelmaier, Brongni- 

 art, Cohn, and others. In physiological botany, however, the 

 most important production has been an able morphological 

 treatise by Strasburger upon the Coniferce and Gnetacece. 



As an instance of the use of paleontological botany, and 

 its application to a more perfect understanding of the rela- 

 tion of surviving plants, we may refer to the address of Asa 

 Gray, delivered as retiring president of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science. In that discourse 

 he traced the history of the genus /Sequoia, embracing the 

 giant trees of California, back to the tertiary period; and the 

 data thus obtained necessarily led to the inference that the 

 species in question were the last survivors of a group abun- 

 dantly represented in previous ages, but whose representa- 

 tives have successively disappeared, till the straggling and 

 rather rare species now living stand out in bold relief against 

 the predominant flora of our own times. 



Botany has suffered in the deaths of Hugo von Mohl; Pro- 

 fessor A. S. Oersted, of Copenhagen ; Dr. F. Welwitsch, the 

 African explorer and botanist; and, in this country,Rev. M. A. 

 Curtis. 



In the field, collections have been made to some extent by 

 W. H. Dall, in Alaska ; E. Hall, in Texas ; C. C. Parry, in Col- 

 orado ; Dr. Hayden, in Montana ; and by Lieutenant Wheeler 

 in Arizona. Many new American phenogamous species have 

 been published, besides numerous species of Fungi by C. H. 

 Peck and M. A. Cooke, in the publications mentioned, and in 

 the London Journal of Botany. 



Among fossil plants, many new and interesting species 

 from the tertiary, cretaceous, and carboniferous beds of the 

 Western territories have been made known by Lesquereux. 



