5° BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



8th a tornado struck North Hall of Iowa Agricultural College, 

 carrying off the roof and crushing in the botanical laboratory, bo- 

 tanical lecture room, and the room in which were the Professor's 

 library, cabinet and herbarium. His work is now carried on in an- 

 other building. The herbarium is saved in packages, but the case 

 is still in the wrecked building, exposed to rains and storms. The 

 library was mostly saved, but badly hurt by rain, lime and crushing. 

 The building is to be repaired soon and the Professor expects to be 

 back in his old quarters by midsummer. 



Mr. Volney Rattan has published a popular "California 

 Flora,' 1 or "Manual of Botany for Beginners," which has just ap- 

 peared in a third edition, revised and enlarged. It contains some 

 introductory lessons and condensed descriptions of plants with con- 

 spicuous flowers, numbering something over 600. The most diffi- 

 cult orders, such as Umbelliferce, Compositce, etc., are not described, 

 being too difficult for beginners. The book seems a most excel- 

 lent one for its purpose, and well calculated to be a stimulus to the 

 study of botany in the schools of California. Many a book of this 

 kind has come from the necessities of an enterprising teacher, for 

 our specialists will not always attend to the wants of beginners. 



The great collections of the late Professor E. Fries, are now 

 offered for sale by his heirs. They consist of an herbarium of extra- 

 Scandinavian phanerogams of about 40,000 species ; an herbarium 

 of Sandinavian phanerogams, complete and containing the types of 

 Prof. Fries 1 works on the Flora of Scandinavia ; a collection of fungi, 

 containing original specimens of Prof. Fries 1 own species and oi 

 those of almost all other mycologists in this century; a collection of 

 about 1,500 drawings of fungi, most of which are colored ; a collec- 

 tion of mosses ; a collection of algse ; exsiccata published by many 

 authors. All these collections have been well taken care of, and the 

 phanerogams are mounted upon fine white paper. They will be sold 

 undivided or in families or genera, and purchasers should address Th. 

 M. Fries, Upsala, Sweden, before the end of May, stating the price 

 offered per hundred. 



Rev. A. B. Hervey, of Taunton, Mass., has prepared some ex- 

 ceedingly handsome slides of marine algge. They are divided iuto 

 two sets of six each. Set 1 shows the characteristic fruit of each 

 of the 6 groups into which the Floridece or red alga? naturally di- 

 vide. Set 2 shows 3 different forms of the asexual spores ot the 

 Floridece, and the sexual fruit of the lower algse. viz : the Crtjpto- 

 phyceai, Zoospores, Oosporete. The writer must acknowledge that 

 these slides came nearer filling a "felt want 11 in his laboratory, than 

 any appliance has done for many a clay. Heretofore his students 

 had to exercise a large degree of faith in regard to the reproductive 

 parts of these low and very interesting forms, but now seeing 

 strengthens both belief and interest. As an educational series these 

 slides are invaluable, and no laboratory or lecture room can afford 



