THE PLANT WOKLD 215 



GENERAL ITEMS. 



The Office of Vegetable Pathiology and Pliysiology of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture has recently purchased the large collection of fungi 

 accumulated by the late A. B. Langlois, of St. Martins\dlle, Louisiana. 

 It contains a very large and complete series of southern species, and 

 many co-types of species described from Mr. Langlois' specimens. It 

 ^vill prove a very valuable addition to the mycological herbarium of the 

 Department. 



Recently a farmer brought in a plant for me to determine. He 

 had cured a sore on the leg of a valuable horse with a poultice made of 

 the root, when all other remedies had failed, and considers that he has 

 found a wonderful remedy for horse-flesh. The plant is Heuchera mac- 

 rorhiza Small. It is very common here on river hlnKs,— Sadie F, Price, 

 Bowling Green, Kentucky. 



This note is of interest as we do not recall many cases of healing 

 properties ascribed to Heuchera, which is a genus of the Saxifrage fam- 

 ily. Can our readers contribute to the general information on this sub- 

 ject? 



At the recent meeting of the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science, Professor I. Bay ley Balfour, president of the botanical 

 section, selected for the subject of his address a discussion of the causes 

 which have led the Angiosperms or higher flowering plants to become 

 the dominant types of the existing flora. Climatic differences of our 

 epoch, contrasted with earlier periods, have been important factors, and 

 especially the great difference in the relative proportions of the land 

 and water areas upon the globe. He says: " The statement is war- 

 ranted that the Angiosperms have become dominant in great measure 

 because in their construction the problem of the plant's relationship to 

 water on a land area has been solved more satisfactorily than in the 

 case of the groups that preceded them. By the formation of flowers 

 and seed the Angiosperms freed themselves from the risks which at- 

 tend reproduction in the Pteridophytes by providing a special place for 

 the development of the germ and thereby rendering it independent of 

 the presence of water." 



