BOTANY. 503 



and Gatesia, in honor of Dr. Hezekiah Gates. A third paper 

 contains a description of 17 new species of Astragalus, most 

 of which were collected in Arizona by Dr. E. Palmer. Final- 

 ly, several miscellaneous species, principally Composites, are 

 described. In the American Journal of Science for February 

 is an article by Mr. Sereno Watson on the Poplars of North 

 America. In the same journal is a paper by Professor Gray 

 on Forest Geography and Archaeology, in which are consid- 

 ered the causes which have produced a forest in California 

 which is rich only in coniferous trees, while the forest of the 

 Atlantic States is, with one exception, the richest in species 

 of any in temperate regions. Four diagrams are given show- 

 ing the comparative richness in species of the Atlantic- Amer- 

 ican, the Pacific-American, the Japan-Manchurian, and the 

 European forests, and also the relative proportion of conifer- 

 ous trees in the same res-ions. The Transactions of the Acad- 

 emy of Science of St. Louis include a Synopsis of the Amer- 

 ican Firs {Abies), by Dr. George Engelmann. He recognizes 

 nine American species. He is of the opinion that the micro- 

 scopic character of the leaf has been too much regarded, to 

 the neglect of the characters furnished by the reproductive 

 organs. The subdivision of the genus, he thinks, can, with 

 much greater certainty, be based on the differences of the 

 leaf-structure than on the length of the bracts, as was for- 

 merly done. In the Torrey Bulletin, the same writer lias 

 some notes on the somewhat confused American species of 

 Vitis. The Botanical Gazette contains a paper by Dr. A. W. 

 Chapman on Plants from the Semi-tropical Regions of Flor- 

 ida, in which a number of new species are described. 



A monograph of the genus Lechea, by Mr. W. H. Leggett, 

 appeared in the Torrey Bulletin, accompanied by an elabo- 

 rate revision of Rafinesque's paper on the same genus. A 

 considerable number of lists of flowering plants have ap- 

 peared, among which we may particularize a " Catalogue of 

 the Phoenogamous and Cryptogamous Plants of the Domin- 

 ion of Canada," by T. Macoun ; two lists of plants found in 

 the Indian Territory, one by Mr. A. Wood and the other by 

 Mr. G. D. Butler ; and a paper on the Distribution of Cer- 

 tain Plants in Missouri, by G. C. Broadhead. Mr. T. S. 

 Brandegee has a paper on the Coniferce of the Crestones in 

 the Botanical Gazette. 



