BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 303 



respects, except that the former are papillate. Of course there is much proba- 

 bility that the two are variations of one species, as Dr. Farlow is inclined to 

 think, although we prefer to keep them separate till more evidence is adduced, 

 and do not see that the occurrence of the two forms of spores in the same sorus 

 is a necessary proof of their genetic connection. No mention is made of the 

 nredo on Bouteloua found in Iowa and described in the article on Iowa Uromy- 

 ces in the Bull. Minn. Acad. Sei., vol. 2, which, although described as part of 

 the Uromyces, may belong to either or both forms. So perplexing a case has not 

 before appeared. No. 1052, Puccinia Lantancr Farlow, from Bermuda, is de- 

 scribed. This also has single-celled teleutospores. 



The Grasses of the United States, being a synopsis of the Tribes and Genera, 

 with descriptions of the genera, and a list of the species. By Dr. George Va- 

 sey, Botanist of the Department of Agriculture. Special Report— No. 63. 



This, lor the first time, gets together all our grasses, that -we may look 

 them in the face, and a goodly array they are, with 114 genera and 589 species. 

 The author has long made a special study of the grasses, and this pamphlet is 

 the result of much careful work and the promise of a work hereafter which 

 will include specific descriptions. The object of the report seems to be specially 

 to give those west of the Mississippi river a chance to name their grasses, and a 

 commendable object it is, too, for botanists at the east have no conception of the 

 "lost feeling" of the ordinary western botanist with all the botany of his re- 

 gion shut up in publications which are inaccessible to him. In this pamphlet 

 the synopsis of the tribes and genera is chiefly a translation from Bentham and 

 Hooker. Our large genera are as follows : Panicum 52 species, Poa 34, Sporobo- 

 lus 26, Paspahim, Aristida, and Muhlenbergia each 23, Stipa, Deyeuxia (Calamaj/- 

 rostis) and Eragrosiis each 20. Those genera with 10 species or more begin 

 with Agrostis and Brornus each with 19, and then in order Festuca, Andropogon, 

 Bouteloua, Glyceria, Melira, Elymus, ami Triodia, under which last name it is 

 hard to recognize Tricuspis. Of these species we note the author's name ap- 

 pended to no less than 30, six of which are in the genus Poa. It is yet hard to 

 accustom ourselves to recognize Deyeuxia as our old Calamagrostk, or Deschamp- 

 sia as the larger part of Aim, or Agropyrum as Triticum in part, or Asprella as 

 Gymnostichum. It is a great pity that the government is so niggardly in the 

 printing of such a pamphlet, for the typography and general "make-up" are 

 very far from being what such work deserves. We understand that copies may 

 be had upon application to Dr. Vasey. 



Contributions to American Botany. XI. ' By Sereno Watson. I. List of 

 Plants from S. W. Texas and N. Mexico, collected chiefly by Dr. E. Palmer, in 

 1879-80 (Gamopetalsfi to Acotyledones). II. Descriptions of some new west- 

 ern species. Proc. Am. Acad. XVIII. 



These annual contributions from the Botanic Gardens at Cambridge are 

 always looked for with the greatest interest as containing the latest utterances 

 of those who are best situated in this country to express an opinion in system- 

 atic botany. The principal part of the present contribution is devoted to a 

 very interesting region, whose flora is comparatively unknown, and certainly 

 very unusual. S. W. Texas and N. Mexico really share in that peculiar flora 

 which has its beginning in S. Idaho, stretches through the Great Basin to Ari- 

 zona and New Mexico, and so on to Texas and Mexico. Nearly fifty new 

 species are described from Dr. Palmer's collection, and two new genera proposed. 

 They both belong to the Liliacece and are named Glyphosperma and Hemiphylacus. 

 The former belongs to Bentham'ssubtribe^l«</im'cefe and is "remarkable for the 

 large colored stigmas, the peculiar filaments, the short dorsifixed anthers, the 

 1-nerved perianth segments, the pitted rugose seeds, and the terete fistulous 

 leaves." The latter is intermediate between the Chlorogalece and the Anlhericeo?,, 

 and is "characterized especially by the adnate filaments, only the inner and 

 shorter ones antheriferous, and the scarious 1-nerved perianth-segments, in con- 

 nection with the tuberous roots." Both were found near Saltillo. A synopsis 



