BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 341 



The British Association has granted $4,300 for promotion of scientific 

 investigation in biology the coming year, not a penny of which goes to botany. 

 Of this sum $750 is absorbed in bibliographical work in zoology. Is botany 

 without wants or without advocates? 



Prof. S. A. Forbes is studying the diseases of caterpillars at the Illinois 

 State Laboratory of Natural History, and finds that some native species are 

 infested with Micrococcus bombycis, the silk-worm disease, while the cabbage- 

 worm (Pierisrapce) is attacked by a still more deadly Micrococcus. 



Mr. Meeiian, editor of the Gardeners' Monthly, made an extended trip 

 through Alaska during last July. He reports a climate and soil equalling that 

 of England, in which cauliflowers and most other common garden vegetables 

 do well. Wild fruits, such as crabapples, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, 

 black currants, gooseberries, huckleberries and juneberries, some sorts of a 

 superior quality, abound. 



Saporta and Marion, in their work on the paleontological development 

 of the plant-kingdom, consider that the cryptogams find their highest devel- 

 opment in the heterosporous Lepidodendra of the carboniferous period and then 

 degenerate into the small Selaginelke and Isoetce of the present time. The main 

 line of direct descent from the protophyta was not continued, but distanced 

 and overpowered by gymnosperms which had already appeared in the carbon- 

 iferous. 



M. Jean Dufour recently gave an account before the Societe Vaudoise of a 

 fungus, which he names Torula spongicola, found on toilet sponges in daily use. 

 It encrusts the surface of the sponge either partially or wholly to an ultimate 

 depth of 5 to 10 mm., with a soft black more or less granular layer, consisting 

 largely of the conidial spores with bacteria in zooglcea state and some organic 

 debris. Using the sponge does not dislodge it, and soap has little or no effect 

 upon its growth. Culture on gelatine under the direction of Dr. DeBary met 

 with no success. 



Cassino's Scientific and Literary Gossip, published at Boston, closes 

 its first volume of twelve numbers with the issue for October 15. The an- 

 nouncement for the coming year promises an increase in size to 24 pages, war- 

 ranted by increased facilities for obtaining the latest news and opinions, a 

 change of name to Science Record, being more exclusively devoted to the 

 natural and physical sciences, and an advance of the annual subscription to 

 one dollar. It is well printed and edited, and fully worth the price asked. 

 Botanists will find many notes of interest in it. 



Mr. W. P. Bundy gives a partial list of the the fungi of Wisconsin in the 

 Geology of Wisconsin, Vol. I, enumerating about 300 species, of which over 80 

 belong to the genus Agaricus. The classification is that of Cook's Handbook 

 which, owing to the rapid advance of our knowledge, is really quite antiquated. 

 It looks strange to see such extreme forms as the puff-balls and slime-moulds 

 brought into juxtaposition, and to find UstUago, Cyslopus and TJredo, all in one 



