INDUSTEIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1876. clxxv 



BOTANY. 



By W. G. FARLOW, M.D., 



Peofessor of Botanv, Harvard College. 



Although the present year has not been marked by any brilliant 

 discovery in vegetable morphology or physiology, it has been pro- 

 ductive in descriptive works, and in experiments which have proved 

 valuable as confirming what was known or previously suspected, 

 rather than as tending to revolutionize previous ideas. 



DESCRIPTIVE BOTANY. 



Among the descriptive works bearing more directly on the flora 

 of the United States must be mentioned the first volume of the 

 " Botany of California," published by the geological survey of that 

 state, aided by contributions from private sources. This volume 

 includes the Polypetalce by Professor W. H. Brewer and Mr. Sereno 

 Watson, and the Gainojjetalce by Professor Asa Gray. The volume, 

 except that it is without illustrations, resembles in form the " Botany 

 of the Clarence King Expedition," by Mr. Watson. Another contri- 

 bution to the botany of the western country is the " Flora of South- 

 western Colorado," by T. S. Brandegee, reprinted from Hay den's " Bul- 

 letin of the Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories," 

 Vol. II,, No. 3. To this pamphlet Professor Asa Gray and Dr. Engel- 

 mann have contributed. In the " Proceedings of the American Acad- 

 emy of Arts and Sciences," January 5th, 1876, is a paper by Professor 

 Gray, in which he describes a number of new American species, and 

 gives a synopsis of American Mimidi. In the " Transactions of the 

 Academy of Science of St. Louis" Dr. George Engelmann has pub- 

 lished two valuable papers. The first, " Notes on Agave," Decem- 

 ber, 1875, but reprinted at a later date, contains a descrii3tion of 

 species of that genus, thirteen of which occur in the United States. 

 The second article is a revision of the " Oaks of the United States." 

 A series of plates of American flowering plants, by Isaac Sprague, 

 with descriptions by Professor G. L. Goodale, is announced to a^D- 

 pear at the close of the year. Descriptions of new American Musci 

 and Hepaticce., by C. F. Austin, have been published in the Bulletin of 

 the Torrey Club ; and new species of American fungi have been 

 described by J. B. Ellis, Charles H. Peck, W. R. Gerard, Rev. M. J. 

 Berkeley, M. C. Cooke, and Baron Von Thiimen, in the Bulletin of the 

 Torrey Club and Grevillea. New species of American Alga? have been 

 described by Professor J. E. Areschoug iu the BotanisM Notiser. 



