66 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



containing quite an elaborate paper on the "Development of the 

 Cortex in Chara" by our chief authority on that group of plants, Dr. 

 T. F. Allen. This paper is accompanied b} r 8 plates. Another 

 plate illustrates Mr. Joseph Schrenk's note on the "Development of 

 the Root-stock of Dicentra cuculla^ia." Other notes by Prot. D. C. 

 Eaton, W. W. Bailey, F. Lamson Scribner, Thomas Meehan and 

 others complete the contents of this very interesting number. 



Robert Clark & Co., of Cincinnati, propose to publish a peri- 

 odical to be called "The American Journal of Forestry," as a practi- 

 cal outgrowth of the Forestry Convention recently held in that city. 

 The object is a splendid one, but it appears to us that the majority 

 of the names of the proposed contributors are names much more dis- 

 tinguished in departments having nothing to do with Forestry, 

 just as was the case with the convention referred to. The list con- 

 tains some splendid names, but many of them are more pretentious 

 than of any actual value. 



Too much care can not be given to the careful writing and 

 proof reading of scientific articles. There should the same exact- 

 ness be demanded in this regard as in the statement of facts. The 

 errors which now creep into our most careful journals are the re- 

 sults either of careless writing or careless proof-reading. Authors 

 can greatly diminish the percentage of errors by writing with per- 

 fect plainness, always going on the supposition that the printer is 

 absolutely ignorant of every word and correctness depends upon the 

 distinct formation of every letter. There was a time when all care- 

 lessly written manuscripts were copied in this office, but that time 

 has long since past, and authors usually have no one to blame but 

 themselves when mistakes occur in their articles. We are glad to 

 learn th at measures are about to be taken by leading naturalists to 

 correct this in the more formal papers submitted for publication, 

 by a more careful examination of them, both in manuscript and 

 proof. 



Mr. Lester F. Ward has published a "Guide to the Flora of 

 Washington and Vicinity" as the 26th Bulletin of the U. S. Nation- 

 al Museum. It forms a pamphlet of 264 pages, with a large map, 

 and is a most exhaustive affair. It is really an elaboration of an out- 

 line presented to the Philosophical Society of Washington last year, 

 and noticed beiore in these pages. Many useful hints can here be 

 obtained by those preparing local catalogues. Not the least valua- 

 ble part of the work is the Appendix, in which full directions are 

 given to beginners in the matter of collecting, preserving, arrang- 

 ing, exchanging, etc. The advice in these respects is unusually sen- 

 sible, and worth following. Ordinarily, the best plan for the begin- 

 ner is not to read such advice until he has developed his own meth- 

 ods and then he does not need it. It is often as impracticable as it 

 well can be, and there are almost as many ways of collecting, preserv- 

 ing, etc., as there are botanists, and most of them answer the pur- 



