268 Recent Literature. [zoe 



mann; a description of a new species of Agave (A. Engelfnanni 

 Trel.) and some notes with a plate on Parmelia molliuscula. 



More than a third of the volume is occupied by reports of the 

 annual banquets of the trustees and gardeners, and the annual flower 

 sermon. Some of our English botannical friends are inclined to 

 poke fun at this feature of the Report, and it must be confessed 

 that a lot of bombastic after-dinner speeches do not combine well 

 with scientific papers, but in fair justice it must be admitted that 

 the authors of the scientific papers should not be held responsible. 



K.B. 



The North Americmi Pyrenomycetes. By J. B. Ellis and B. M. 

 EvERHART. This book is an octavo of nearly 800 pages, with 41 

 excellent plates drawn by F. W. Anderson, whose early death we 

 have had recently to deplore. Very little critical work has been 

 done excepting in the Erysipheee, which were elaborated by Prof 

 T. J. Burrill. Scarcely any attempt has been made to indicate the 

 conidial and other stages of the species and the specific keys aje 

 of the slightest; as for instance in Sphaerella, where the sections of 

 the genus are given as: 



A. Parasitic on leaves of dicotyledonous trees and shrubs. 



B. On leaves and cones of coniferous trees. 



C. On stems and leaves of dicotyledonous herbaceeus plants. 



D. On monocotyledonous plants. 



E. On cryptogamous plants. 



This may be as good a key as any, where the principal distinc- 

 tions among the species appear to be the different plants on which they 

 grow, with an occasional variation of a {^^ micromillimetres in size, 

 but this being the case the want of an index of hosts is especially 

 remarkable. The volume on account of the large type and spacing 

 is unduly large, and the plates though excellent are in many cases 

 of species which have already been figured, and render the book 

 too expensive for the masses, while to the specialist it is entirely 

 unnecessary. K.B. 



ConiribiUions fro?n the U. S. Herbarium, vol. i, No. 5. This 

 publication contains four papers. The first is a list of the plants 

 collected by Dr. Palmer in 1890 on Carmen Island. Drymaria 

 diffusa, DesmantJius fniticostis, Passiflora Palmeri, Houstonia friiti- 

 rosa, Brickellia brachiata var. glabrata and EupJiorbia Carnie7iensis , 



