BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 263 



Mr. A. B. Morgan has published a second part of his " Mycologic Flora 

 of the Miami Valley, O.," bringing up the genus Agaricus to 146 species. 



Science still continues to give botany as much attention as at first, in the 

 form of independent articles, book reviews, communications, and a weekly sum- 

 mary. Dr. W. G. Farlow looks after the latest information regarding crypto- 

 gams ; the other writers were mentioned in our notice in the March Gazette. 



Actinomykosis is the name of a new disease in man and the lower animals 

 caused by a fungus of the genus Actinomyces, which forms tumors near the angle 

 of the jaw and proves fatal when it becomes generalized. It was the subject of 

 remarks by Dr. Thomas Taylor and Dr. D. E. Salmon, at the meeting of the 

 Biological Society of Washington, on the 25th of last month. 



In the fourth volume of the " Monographic Phanerogamarum," just 

 published, Dr. Engler monographs Burseraeece and Anacardiacece and Count 

 Solms-Laubach Fonlederiacae. Two new genera of Anacardiaceas are proposed,. 

 Pleiogyniwm on Spondias acida, Soland, and Pseudospondias on Spondias microcar- 

 pa, Rich. 



A prize of 500 francs has been offered by the Societe de physique et d'histoire 

 natureUe de Geneve for the best monograph of a genus or family of plants. The 

 prize was founded by the elder DeCandolle. The manuscripts are to be sent to 

 Prof. Alph. DeCandolle, at Geneva, before October 1, 1884, and the members 

 of the Society are not admitted to the contest. 



The proceedings of the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Sci- 

 ence, just published, contains quite a number of articles on applied botany. 



Prof. C. E. Bessey has a pleasant article in the Transactions of the Iowa 

 Horticultural Society, for 1882, entitled On Parasitic and Other Fungi, in which 

 he points out the popular danger of entertaining extreme views of the harm- 

 fulness of these plants, not properly discriminating between good and bad. 



An alphabetical index to the first ten centuries of Ellis' North Ameri- 

 can Fungi has been issued. It was compiled by W. C. Stevenson, jr., and is 

 most carefully and satisfactorily done. 



The Report of the State Laboratory of Natural History of Illinois, which 

 was lately issued, shows that that State is fully alive to the great need of an 

 investigation of the parasitic fungi. During the collecting season of last year 

 and the latter half of the preceding year, Prof. A. B. Seymour has been enabled 

 to give his whole time to collecting throughout the State, with assistants to take 

 care of the material as it arrived at the laboratory. A working library, herb- 

 arium, and instruments have been secured, and it is now proposed to work up 

 this material along with future accessions into reports that will be of perma- 

 nent value to the citizens of the State. It is an enterprise in the right direc- 

 tion, and deserving emulation. 



Dr. J. J. Brown, of Sheboygan, Wis., has for several seasons experimented 

 with field fungi for culinary purposes. He finds no fungi that one would be 

 likely to gather for eating that are violently poisonous. His method for dis- 



