evi ' GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



new ferns of the United States and Mexico have been de- 

 scribed by Professor D. C. Eaton, and a hundred and fifty new 

 species of fungi by Charles W. Peck in the Bulletin of the 

 Buffalo Society of Natural History. Rev. W. J. Berkely l]as 

 also continued in "Grevillea" his notices of North American 

 fungi. Catalogues have been published of E. Hall's Texan 

 collection of 1872 by Dr. Gray, and of Hayden's collection of 

 the same year in the Yellowstone region by Dr. J. M. Coul- 

 ter. A work upon the flora of Colorado, by Professor T. C. 

 Porter and Dr. Coulter, is in an advanced stage of progress. 

 A fuU.list of the new phenogamous genera and species of the 

 United States that have been published during the year may 

 be seen elsewhere in this volume. 



Investigations in the field have been carried on quite ex- 

 tensively the past season in connection with government sur- 

 veys in the Western Territories. A very large collection has 

 been made by Dr. J. T. Rothrock and Mr. J. Wolffe, under 

 Lieutenant G. M. Wheeler, in Southern Colorado. Dr. C. C. 

 Parry has collected in Northern Wyoming and Montana; Dr. 

 Coulter has again accompanied Dr. Hayden's survey ; Mr. J. 

 A. Allen has collected on the line of the Northern Pacific 

 Railroad ; and Mr. Dall in the Aleutian Islands. 



Botanical science in this country has suffered a serious 

 loss in the deaths of Dr. John Torrey, of New York; Wil- 

 liam S. Sullivant, of Ohio ; and Elias Durand, of Philadelphia, 

 who have been more or less closely identified with it for 

 many years. 



AGRICULTURE AND RURAL ECONOMY. 



Much the largest part of the progress in Agricultural sci- 

 ence comes from researches made in Europe, especially in the 

 agricultural experiment stations which have, during the last 

 two decades, been steadily increasing in numbers, activity, 

 and usefulness. These experiment stations consist of chem- 

 ical laboratories connected with stables, fields, gardens, or 

 greenhouses, where men of the highest scientific attainments 

 and practical skill are engaged in the study of problems of 

 importance in agriculture. Of these experiment stations, 

 there are in the various countries of Europe some seventy, 

 of which about half have been founded during the past five 

 years. The majority are German, there being some thirty in 



