BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 231 



•"• 



expected that hereafter there will be nothing to offend the eye of the most fas- 

 tidious. 



Prop. J. E. Todd, of Beloit, Wis., observes that in Psoralen argophylh a 

 joint is formed in the stem very near the top of the ground, as perfect as that 

 separating a leaf from the stem. "It cuts through all the tissues so that when 

 the top dries up and begins to sway in the wind, it is broken off very readily 

 or evenly." Thus they are rolled across the prairie and their seeds are dis- 

 seminated. 



Mb. Thos. H. Corry has been studying the development and mode of fer- 

 tilization of the flowers of Asclepias Gornvii and has made some important ad- 

 ditions to the work done by R. Brown, Payer, Schacht, and others. lie shows 

 that the so-called "stigma-disk" is formed by the fusion of the two style-apices, 

 and not by that of the two stigmas. The anther wings, he finds, originate as 

 lateral processes of the connective. In the matter of pollen formation the genus 

 presents a "perfectly unique, isolated, and peculiar case of formation." These 

 and many other results were announced recently to the Linnean Society of 

 London. 



Mr. J. G. Baker has presented to the Linnean Society of London the sec- 

 ond part of his "Contributions to the Flora of Madagascar," in which are 

 descriptions of 160 new Gamopetalce. A new genus is described allied to Gin- 1 

 chona. Several new genera of Acanthacece are described, among which is Mon- 

 acKocMamys, so named because each one of the numerous flowers is contained in 

 a persistent spathaceous bract, like the hood of a Franciscan monk. 



The short paper by Dr. A. L. Childs in the Popular Science Monthly for 

 December, 1882, (vide Bot. Gaz., this volume, page 163), has called out a vig- 

 orous rejoinder from Mr. J. B. Strawn, C. E. Mr. Strawn, referring to the well- 

 known fact that surveyors were in the habit of "blazing" trees on lines and at 

 corners, says that, having had occasion many times to chop into such trees to 

 satisfy himself of their identity, he has in every instance found the number of 

 rings to correspond with the numbeB of years which had elapsed since the blaz- 

 ing was done. The rings found by Dr. Childs he suspects to be those formed by 

 trees when, from drought or some similar cause, the wood ceases to grow, but 

 afterward, on account of copious rains and a high temperature, is forced into a 

 second growth. Mr. Strawn also affirms that examination of trees of his own 

 planting confirms him in the belief that the truthfulness of the "ring-record" 

 may be depended upon. 



CURRENT LITERATURE. 



The Mycologic Flora of the Miami Valley, Ohio. By A. P. Morgan. From Jour. 



Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist. vol. vi., April, 1883. 



Mr. Morgan has long been studying Fungi, and the above is a part of the re- 

 sult of his study in the Miami Valley. It is a most commendable effort to put 

 the descriptions of these low forms of plant life within the reach of the many, 



