98 THE PLANT WOKLD 



NOTES ON CURRENT 

 LITERATURE 



In an advance separate from the Annual Beport of the Missouri 

 Botanical Garden, Dr. Trelease describes an interesting new palmetto 

 from the Mexican State of Sonora, under the name Sabal Uresana. A 

 beautiful photograph shows the plant to be a handsome tree of more 

 graceful habit than our eastern palmettoes. In foliage it somewhat 

 resembles the Washington palm, but the leaf-stalks are not spiny. 



We have just received a copy of " Notes on the Flora of Connecti- 

 cut," by A. W. Driggs, which forms No. 16 of the Connecticut School 

 Documents. We are at a loss to understand the reasons for this pub- 

 lication. It does not appear to supplement any former list of Connec- 

 ticut plants, and moreover embraces only a few of what would seem to 

 be ordinarily common species. The families are arranged alphabetic- 

 ally, the ferns, for instance, coming between the evening primroses and 

 the figworts, the grasses between the goosefoot and heath families. 



Frederick D. Chester, Bacteriologist of the Delaware Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, and Director of the State Bacteriological Labora- 

 tory, has just completed "A Manual of Determinative Bacteriology." 

 The work aims to arrange all sufficiently described bacteria in such a 

 way that they can be determined by the laboratory worker. The sys- 

 tem of classification of Migula has been adopted. The genera are then 

 divided into classes in accordance with their most prominent characters. 

 Under each class is a synoptical table, after the plan of a botanical key, 

 which enables the student to trace out the species. Then follow brief 

 and concise descriptions of the species. No known facts regarding the 

 latter have been omitted, but the system of terminology adopted by the 

 writer makes it possible to make these descriptions short and to the 

 point, thus avoiding verbosity. The work is prefaced by a number of 

 chapters on mori^hology, cultural characters and methods, which will 

 enable a student to take up any culture placed in his hands, and to 

 study it and determine it systematically. Teachers of bacteriology 

 have long felt the want of a work which will enable a student to accu- 

 rately describe the cultural character of an organism, and then to de- 

 termine the species in question. Both of these demands have been met 

 in the present work. 



