VOL. III.] Recent Literature. 367 



The contributors to the first number are Prof. E. L. Greene, two pa- 

 pers; Willis L. Jepson, two papers; F. T. Bioletti, descriptions of two 

 new plants. Teratological notes (reversion of the flowers oi Leptosyne 

 maritima and Tropceohim minus) by Marshall A. Howe. Reviews 

 and criticisms, miscellaneous notes and news. The inside of the 

 cover is apparently modeled after some of Rafinesque's publications, 

 containing" an adv^ertisement of the journal within the first cover, and 

 a list of the 'principal botanical writings" of Professor Greene in- 

 side the back 



The motto of the journal might fitly be the following paragraph 

 from the introduction to Rafinesque's "Neobotanon," Part 4: "As I 

 think that I am gifted with a peculiar sharp sagacity in discriminat- 

 ing Genera and Species of Plants and Animals, it behooves me to use 

 it in order to rectify these objects and the sciences relating thereto. — 

 It is what I have often done, am now doing and will continue to do 

 as long as I live, not being prevented by the sneer or neglect of any- 

 one whom I consider less sagacious than myself, who cannot discrim- 

 inate between the most conspicuous characters blended by the Lin- 

 neists or modern Blenders and Shufflers." 



Mr. Greene starts out by alluding to his "reasons for accepting 

 the Cichoriacese as a separate natural order, forgetting, perhaps, his 

 experience in describing '' Prenanthes stricia,'' and makes declaration 

 that "for the nomenclature of genera we are not disposed to recog- 

 nize any particular initial date." The usual contributions to the 

 synonymy of Western botany to be expected in a publication over 

 which Mr. Greene has control, follow. Pulsatilla ?nulticeps may be, 

 from its very imperfect description, almost anything. P. Micheneri, 

 appears from the character to be a rather more glabrous form of P. 

 Bolanderi, that species having cuneate-obcordate petals and 10 di- 

 lated filaments, the alternate ones shorter. 



Mr. Greene has of course a perfect right, if so inclined, to reduce 

 Potentilla Breweri to P. Plaite?isis, but why not call it van Breweri 

 instead of var. leucophylla^ more especially as leucobhylla has been 

 used in the genus already several times. Potentilla ambigens and 

 p. scopulorut7i are perhaps of that genus, though experience has 

 shown that it is not always safe to assume even that degree of ac- 

 curacy on the author's part, and there is hardly anything in the de- 

 scriptions to prove that he is not describing forms of, Barbarea vul- 



