246 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



Notes on Fresh Water Algee. — To ray note under this heading in the 

 last Gazette I wish to add that it may be a question whether B/ivularia ftuitans 

 should not be referred to Echinella artieulata, Ag. That species is known to me 

 only through the figure in English botany and the figure given by Phillips in 

 Grevittea, Vol. IX., pi. 14-4, a-d. From the figure in Eng. Bot. not much infor- 

 mation can be derived, but from that in Grevilleq, which appears to be referred 

 without hesitation to Echinella articulate,, Ag., one can not fail to see a close re- 

 semblance to the alga collected by Prof. Arthur, with which it also agrees in 

 its peculiar habitat. — W. G. Farlow. 



Chloranthy of Ranunculus Californiens.— Green Buttercups are unusu- 

 ally common about San Francisco Bay this season. The persistent floral organs 

 (excepting the almost normal yellowish stamens) are as green as the ordinary 

 foliage. The spoon-shaped sepals are not reflexed ; the hairy petals have ovate 

 blades only two lines long, borne on slender petioles three to six lines in length. 

 The nectariferous scales are plainly seen at the bases of the blades. Most of 

 the capellary leaves become stipitate empty akenes, but some are open on the 

 inner side, and a few become oblanceolate leaves two or three lines in length. — 

 Volney Rattan, San Francisco, Col. 



Discharging' Ascospores. — In the January No. of the Gazette appeared 

 an interesting account of the sound of discharging ascospores observed by Mr. 

 E. W. Holway, Decorah, Iowa. I have this spring heard the same hissing 

 sound on opening a box in which a number of Peziza coecinea, Jaeij., had been 

 inclosed for two hours. 



I transcribe an extract from a letter written by the distinguished botanist 

 Haller, Gottingen, Sept. 19, 1740, to the father of botany, Linnaeus, Upsal, 

 Sweden : " The place where I am is but a barren field for botany excepting fungi, 

 which are plentiful. I have detected a very curious elastic motion in the com- 

 mon sessile Peziza, of a dirty white hue. The whole plant contracts spontane- 

 ously and discharges a powder upwards with a sort of hissing sound. This 

 doubtless is the seed." He furthermore says that " fungi are a mutable and 

 treacherous tribe;" a fact just as apparent to-day as it was 143 years ago.— 

 L. V. Morgan, Cincinnati, 0. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



Since the notice in the Gazette of the appearance of a supplement to 

 Chapman's Flora, many inquiries have been made regarding it. A note from 

 Dr. Chapman conveys the information that the new edition is now on sale with 

 Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor & Co., N. Y. ; and Ashmead Bros., Jacksonville, Fla. 

 The supplement is not sold separately, but is bound with the new edition. 



Mr. W. B. HemsleY, of the Kew Gardens, is preparing a work which will be 

 practically a flora of the remote islets of the Atlantic and Southern Oceans. 

 With regard to the Bermudas it may be that some of the readers of the Gazette 

 may be able to give some help. The composition of the flora of the Bermudas 



