'">00 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



Peronospora viticola was found on Ampelopsis at Minneapolis by Dr. 

 Farlow. The discovery is an important one in view of the strenuous efforts of 

 European countries to prevent the spread of the disease. Our native Ampelop- 

 sis is almost as common in many cities of Europe as in this country, and spe- 

 cially observable in Geneva. 



Dr. J. D. Tkask, of Astoria, N. Y., has published an account of the poi- 

 soning of thirteen persons, belonging to several families, rive of whom died, 

 from eating unwholesome mushrooms. He is of the opinion (which to us does 

 not seem likely) that many deaths occur annually from this cause. The trou- 

 ble appears to come from confounding two poisonous white-gilled species of 

 mushrooms, Amanita phulloides and A. verna, especially the former, with edible 

 kinds. While a few poisonous species are to be avoided, there are, on the other 

 hand, many kinds that may be eaten with impunity, and of these the most de- 

 sirable — Agaricus campestiHs, the common mushroom with pink gills, A. procerus, 

 one of the largest species of the genus, Mbrchella esculenta, the morell, and Lyco- 

 perdon gigantewn, the great puff-ball— are so characteristic in appearance as to 

 offer small opportunity for mistakes, and that only to the most careless ob- 

 servers. 



A paper, by E. W. Claypole, on the occurrence of Vaeeinium brackycerum in 

 Pennsylvania, read before the Minneapolis A. A. A. S., will soon appear in the 

 proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 



Professor Harvey, of the Arkansas Industrial University, h;is distributed 

 an excellent paper on the Forest Trees of Arkansas, reprinted from the Ameri- 

 can Journal <>/ Forestry. It is a very full account of the arboreal flora, giving 

 distribution and many notes of interest. 



M. Ves^ue claims that the histological characters of plants can be used for 

 their systematic classification. It may be that the systematic classification of 

 plants can be made more easily than the systematic classification of their tis- 

 sues, but that there is endless confusion about the latter, every student of his- 

 tology knows. Vesque depends on such structures as stomata, hairs, the fibro- 

 vascular bundles, etc., and really shows that many natural groups can be made 

 upon the basis of such characters. 



The table of contents and index for the first volume of Science are mod- 

 els of completeness and convenience. 



It seems that atmospheric pressure must be counted as one influence on the 

 growth of plants. Wieler, at Tubingen, has been experimenting, and finds that 

 diminished atmospheric pressure induces more rapid growth, of course within 

 certain limits. As Dr. Goodale remarks in Science, such investigations "may 

 compel us to revise some notions now held in regard to the adaptation of plants 

 to their surroundings in past ages, and at the present time upon high moun- 

 tains." 



Prof. Wittrook has just published, in Stockholm, a " Snow and Ice Flora," 

 which is included in Baron Nordenskjold's studies in the extreme north, but is 

 an exhaustive account of our knowledge of the subject. Forty-seven species are 

 described, thirty-seven of which belong to the snow and ten to the ice. They 



