110 THF PLANT WORLD. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Rlmdoi'd for June contains a sketch of the hite Edwin Faxon and 

 is accompanied In- a tine artot^pe portrait. Mr. Faxon is another ex- 

 ample of a business man who yet found time to prosecute science. 



In Till' A^it (jiudj Bnlletrn for June Mr. Shear continues his tech- 

 nical account of our puff-balls. There are also articles on Gradenino- 

 in the Missouri public schools and the flora of a neglected dooryard. 



The Canada thistle is made the subject of a recent circular l)y L. 

 H. Dewey issued from the Division of B(>tany of the Department of 

 Agriculture. It gives a complete history of this weed with its present 

 distribution, methods of eradication, etc. It used to be supposed that 

 this thistle was indigenous in western Canada, but Mr. Dewey is of the 

 opinion that it was all introduced at a very early date and spread 

 rapidly over Canada and New England. 



Some idea of the agricultural productions of this country may be 

 gained by a glance at the statistics for 1899 is recently published by 

 the Department of Agriculture. Of corn the product was 2,078,143,- 

 938 bushels; wheat 547,303,846 bushels; oats 795,177,713 bushels; 

 barley 73,381,563 bushels; rye 23,961,741 bushels; buckwheat 11,- 

 074,473 bushels; potatoes 228,783,232 bushels; cotton 11,189,205 

 commercial bales. The value of this entire product is something fab- 

 ulous. * 



In the Torrey Bulletin for May there are a number of systematic 

 articles of interest. Mr. E. P. Bicknell describes the British Ameri- 

 can species of Sisyrinchium, recognizing 8 species of which one is 

 new. The North American Willows of the longifoliae group are 

 made the subject of a careful article by Prof. W. W. Rowlee. He 

 recognizes 12 species of which several are described as new. Prof. 

 Aven Nelson descril)es some 20 new plants from Wyoming, and Dr. 

 Small describes about a dozen new forms from various localities. The 

 number also contains articles on fungi, mosses, etc. 



