BOTANY. 335 



of algse of the United States, prepared by Professor Farlow, 

 Dr. C. L. Anderson, and Professor D. C. Eaton. In the higher 

 cryptogams there have been new species of mosses and Ile- 

 paticm described by C. F. Austin in the Torrey Bulletin, and 

 an illustrated paper on some ferns of the Western country 

 lias been prepared by Professor D. C. Eaton for the report 

 of the Wheeler Expedition. The first set of a series intend- 

 ed to include all the species of ferns found in the United 

 States the text by Professor D. C.Eaton, and plates by Mr. 

 Emerton has appeared, and the execution is all that could 

 be desired. 



Physiological. 



It is a subject of congratulation that the number of arti- 

 cles on vegetable physiology and the minute anatomy and 

 development of different groups is increasing in this coun- 

 try ; and there seems a probability that, at no distant date, 

 important work in this department will be done by American 

 botanists. As might be supposed, the interest of our bota- 

 nists has been especially turned to the subjects of cross-fer- 

 tilization and insectivorous plants. On the former subject, 

 notes have been published by Professor Gray, in the Natu- 

 ralist, on the fertilization of Gentiana Andrewsii, which, lie 

 thinks, is generally fertilized by insects, although occasion- 

 ally it is self- fertilized. In the Torrey Bulletin the same 

 opinion is advanced by Mr. W. W. Bailey. On somewhat 

 insufficient grounds another writer, in the same journal, con- 

 siders the flowers of Gentiana, Andrewsii as cleistogenic. In 

 the Naturalist for May, Mr. H. G. Hubbard relates his ob- 

 servations on Aristolochia clematitis, made while travelling: 

 in Jamaica. The flower, which is shaped like a German pipe, 

 is divided into three chambers, by constrictions and valves, 

 furnished with backward-pointing bristles, the whole form- 

 ing a trebly guarded fly-trap. The outer chamber alone 

 gives out the carrion odor which attracts insects to enter, and 

 these cannot escape on account of the backward - pointing 

 bristles. Mr. Hubbard shows, however, that, as the flower 

 withers, the constrictions disappear, and the insects readily 

 escape, loaded with pollen. In the same journal, a review 

 of the literature with regard to the cleistogenic flowers of 

 different species of Viola is given by Professor Goodale. 

 With regard to the insectivorous properties of Sarraeenia 



