394 * The Ohio Naturalist. [Vol. IX, No. 1, 



the plant in relation to cold and freezing. The water is probably 

 excreted by the cells surrounding the cavities, the membrane 

 lining the central cavity being especially characteristic. It is 

 white and very tough and can easily be removed unbroken from 

 the rest of the tissue. 



The Equisetums tlius make an exceedingly interesting group 

 for field study in the winter and it might be worth while to make 

 observations on all of our native species. 



News and Notes. 



The eighteenth annual meeting of the Ohio State Academy 

 of Science will be held at Denison University, Granville, Ohio, on 

 November 26-28. A large and interesting meeting is expected.. 



Gray's New Manual of Botany, Seventh Edition,. 

 Illustrated.* The publication of a new edition of Gray's 

 Manual, extensively revised and modernized by Professor B. L. 

 Robinson and Professor M. L. Fernald, of Harvard University, 

 is an event of unusual interest in the American botanical world.. 

 The changes made in the work are such as to inake it practically 

 a new book. The nomenclature follovxs the Vienna code; the 

 arrangement of the families is according to the Engler and 

 Prantl scheme ; the term family is used in place of the former 

 "order;" and most of the genera have their full quota of recent 

 species. A comparison with Britton's Manual of a few genera, 

 shows the following result: 



Salix — Gray 31, Britton 51. 



Crataegus — Gray 65, Britton 31. 



Viola— Gray 45, Britton 43. 



Antennaria — Gray 11, Britton 15. 

 To one who gained his first botanical knowledge from the 

 5th edition, the present work, therefore, seems altogether new 

 and strange; yet here and there, on close examination, some of 

 the old landmarks are still visible. 



The revision has been admirably done, by eliminating the 

 archaic and retaining the best features of the 6th edition. The 

 numerous illustrations have been judiciously selected and will 

 be of great benefit to beginners. The manual will probably 

 become the standard text-book for most of the more conservative 

 botanists of the United States. 



No doubt the whole vexed nomenclatural question will again 

 be brought to the front in America. It w-ill now become neces- 

 sary for those who simply follow some "authority" for con- 

 venience to choose between two standards. At first thought 



^American Book Company, cloth, 8vo., 928 pp., price $2.50. 



