78 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



according to DeCandohVs system, and are represented in many in- 

 stances by original specimens. The collection is mounted on white 

 paper and arranged in volumes. Prof. Cesati also offers for sale the 

 autographs of 2,500 botanists. Persons desiring to obtain these 

 collections, which contain plants from all over the world, should 

 address Prof. Cesati before the end of August. 



H. Baillon has just published in Paris his Monographie des 



Composees. In Bentham and Hooker's Genera Plantarum this great 

 order contains 780 genera, although the work of reduction was so 

 rigidly performed that some genera were afterwards reinstated. 

 Baillon has reduced the number of genera to 403, and in the sense 

 that generic consolidation is a better fault than the opposite ex- 

 treme this is commendable. Dr. Gray, for whose opinion in such 

 matters we always look, says that even yet Baillon "keeps up sever- 

 al genera which Ave find it impossible to maintain; and there are 

 others which should have been suppressed upon his principles, 

 though not upon ours. 1 ' 



Hugo DeVries claims to have found the function of resinous 

 matters in plants. That they were excrementitious has long since 

 been given up, for their withdrawal from the plant proves to be an 

 injury rather than a benefit. Hence they must be of some use to 

 the plant, for in these days we do not believe so much that things 

 were made for us as that we find in them and use what was made 

 for themselves. DeVries thinks that in resin-producing plants the 

 resinous juice is stored in the tree as a balm for wounds. Being 

 stored up under tension it is immediately poured out over a wound- 

 ed surface. _ No better dressing could be found than this rapidly ox- 

 idizing liquid, which excludes air and moisture and germs which 

 induce decay. 



_ The University of Minnesota will open a summer school 

 during the coming season, beginning July 5th, to continue four 

 weeks. The course in Botany will be conducted by Prof. J. C. Ar- 

 thur, whose name and reputation are well known to readers of the 

 Gazette. Laboratory work will be a prominent feature, and the 

 subjects presented will be Morphology of the Vegetable Cell; 

 Spen'al Structure of Plants, considered by Classes; Vegetable His- 

 tology and Physiology; Bibliography and History of Botany. A 

 personal acquaintance with "Mr. Arthur in the laboratory gives the 

 writer an opportunity to heartily recommend his work "and meth- 

 ods to those desiring such instruction. He can be addressed at 

 Charles City, Iowa, until July; after that at Minneapolis. 



The Gardeners' Monthly for June is an unusually interest- 

 ing number. Mr. Meehan is called upon to puncture a good deal 

 of nonsense, and usually does so in a very sprightly way. In the 

 •number referred to. among other things, he noticed"a curious paper 

 read at the recent Forestry Convention held in Cincinnati, in which 

 th - writer suj I '• that the examination of cro - ections in atr< 

 would show when the. seasons in the past were dry seasons, and 

 3— thin layers indicating the dry and broad on- 



