BOTANY. 



By Professor W. G. FARLOW, 



Harvard College, Cambridge. Mass. 



During the year 1878 there has been great activity in all 

 the departments of botany, but, contrary to what was the 

 case in 1877, the more important publications have related 

 to phanerogams rather than cryptogams. As usual, the 

 work done in America has been almost entirely descriptive, 

 but it has been of a high order; and we record with pleasure 

 an unusual number of American books, especially relating to 

 phanerogams and ferns, which have not been surpassed by 

 any corresponding European publications. With the excep- 

 tion of Great Britain, the activity of European botanists has 

 been directed rather to minute researches on the structure 

 of the vegetable cell, to the development of the lowest forms 

 of vegetable life, and to vegetable physiology, than to de- 

 scriptive works, although there has been by no means a 

 dearth of the latter. In giving an account of the progress 

 of botany we have, for the convenience of the reader, sepa- 

 rated the part relating to America from that relating to 

 foreign countries, beginning with the publications of this 

 country. 



PROGRESS IN AMERICA. 



Phanerogams. 



During the present year there have appeared several of 

 the most valuable contributions ever made to a knowledge 

 of American phanerogams. First in importance must be 

 mentioned Part I. of the "Flora of North America," by 

 Professor Asa Gray. This work is in reality a continua- 

 tion of the " Flora of North America," by Torrey and Gray, 

 in two volumes, which ended with the Composite. The 

 new "Flora " begins with the Goode?iiacew i and Part I. ends 

 with the Plantaginacece. It covers nearly 400 pages, and 

 the descriptions include 1560 native species belonging to 298 

 genera, and 96 species of introduced plants belonging to 26 



