156 THE PLANT WORLD 



NOTES ON CURRENT 

 LITERATURE 



The second number of 3Iuhlenbergia has appeared. It contains a 

 list of the fungi collected by Mr. Heller in Porto Rico during January 

 and February, 1900. Professor F. S. Earle who worked over the ma- 

 terial, describes several new species, mostly Pyrenomycetes. Follow- 

 ing this, lists of two previous collections, one made by Schwanecke and 

 the other by Sintenis are given, thus bringing together the published 

 records of Porto Rican fungi where they can be easily consulted. These 

 lists probably include but a small proportion of the species occurring 

 there, as no very thorough collection of these plants has yet been made. 



Mr. B. D. Gilbert has published an attractive pamphlet entitled " A 

 Working List of North American Pteridophytes North of Mexico." It 

 is a check-list for the use of students and collectors, with an appendix 

 consisting of an extended commentary on various rare species, together 

 with a number of new varieties, here printed for the first time. It is 

 unfortunate that original descriptions should be inserted in a work of 

 this kind, the title of which is cumbrous to cite; but even worse is the 

 lack of system in indicating new names and combinations. The author 

 is inclined to be very conservative in his treatment of species, reducing 

 many which have found general acceptance elsewhere to varieties or 

 even to mere forms. 



The editor of The American Botanist has called our attention to a 

 statement made in the course of our comments on the first issue of that 

 journal published in The Plant World of last month, and complains 

 that it is misleading. We observed that " our contemporary also in- 

 dulges in an editorial denunciation of the use of scientific names in 

 popular writings." The editorial in question distinctly states that such 

 names will be inserted in parentheses, and we did not intend our re- 

 mark above quoted to convey a different impression. But the spirit of 

 hostility toward the technical names is quite manifest, nevertheless, and 

 is emphasized in the succeeding issue of the journal, where the editor 



