164 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



ly eighteen months old he counted eighteen rings of growth. In 1871 Dr. 

 Child planted some seeds of Acer rubrum. In transplanting in 1873 the 

 trees were set too close and had to be thinned. In each of four of these 

 trees when they were cut down in 1882 he counted from 35 to 40 separate 

 rings. In three of them twelve rings were plainer than the rest, while 

 in the fourth, nine were large and the remainder not distinguishable 

 from each other. All of these saplings were of known age. Certainly 

 if 35 or 40 rings may be made in twelve years, the estimates of age based 

 on the number of growth rings cannot be very accurate. The rings va- 

 ried in thickness from 2 l / 2 to 28 mm. 



Dr. Chas. Moiir has been looking np the rare Ehtis cotinoidex, 

 Nutt., for the Tenth Census. It has been lost to the botanical world for 

 forty years and was poorly understood. After considerable search the 

 tree was found where Prof. Buckley had found it in 1841. Its habitat 

 sesms to be upon the southern declivities of mountains along the valley 

 of the Tennessee in Alabama and probably extending northward into 

 the State of Tennessee. Dr. Mohr reports it as yielding a yellow dye- 

 stuff and formerly much used for that purpose in the neighboring settle- 

 ments. On account of the great beauty of its wood the tree is called by 

 the negroes Shittim-wood, they believing that it is the very wood so 

 named in the Bible. "The wood permits of the linest finish; the fineness 

 of its grain, beauty of color and its hardness fit it well for inlaid work, 

 veneering, and the manufacture of smaller articles of all kinds of fancy 

 woodwork." An interesting account of this re-discovery is given in Proe . 

 Philad. Acad., p. 217. 1882. 



CURRENT LITERATURE. 



Descriptions of New Species of Fungi, collected in the vicinity of 

 Cincinnati. By Thomas G. Lea, and described by Rev. M. J. Berke- 

 ley. Republished from "7V Catalogue of the Plants of Cincinnati, by 

 Thomas G. Lea." This important pamphlet has just been published by 

 the Cincinnati Society of Natural History. Thos. G. Lea's "Catalogue 

 of Plants" was published in 1849, the collections having been made dur- 

 ing the years 1834-44, but it has become so exceedingly rare as to be vir- 

 tually inaccessible to students. This was to be regretted principally on 

 account of its containing a list of Fungi with notes and descriptions of 

 the new species by the eminent English mycologist, Rev. M. J. Berkeley. 

 This loss has now been generously made good by the Society ref< rred to, 

 and this neat pamphlet of 21 pages is hailed with delight by more than 

 the local mycologists. The richness of Mr. Lea's collections may be in- 

 ferred from the fact that out of a list of 80 species 51 are new, and one of 

 them was made the tvpe of a new genus, Psilopezia by name. The Cin- 

 cinnati Society of Natural History has quite an enterprising set of mem- 

 bers, who are well cultivating many departments, not even neglecting, 

 as is seen, this much neglected branch of Systematic Botany, and they 

 promise to publish during this present year a synopsis of llymenomy- 

 cetes of the Miami Valley, by Prof. A. P. Morgan. 



