266 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



forms the tribe Clematidm of Ranunculacece," as there is associated with it a 

 small genus of Southern Asia, Naravelia by name. The geographical range is 

 given quite fully, and is evidently the result of much care and correspondence. 



Descriptions of Iowa Uromyces, by J. C. Arthur. From Bulletin Minn. Acad. 

 Nat. ScL, Vol. II. 



Some Ahjtv of Minnesota supposed to be Poisonous, by the same. 1. c. The for- 

 mer paper is the result of a careful study of a portion of the American Uredi' 

 neace, to which group the author has lately been paying special attention. The 

 effort is most commendable to attract attention to plants too much neglected, 

 and if ever the study of the lower Cryptogams ceases to be a bugbear, it will 

 largely be due to just such workers as Prof. Arthur. The novel part about the 

 present paper is that it attempts to group under each species all the three 

 stages in its life history. Of course this is the thing to do, and it has only been 

 because of our ignorance of the true relationship among these scattered phases, 

 that it has not long since been done. A careful set of cultures is what is needed 

 to unravel the snarl. In the meantime it has been customary to base species 

 upon the characters of one or two phases, and to distribute the phases under 

 separate genera, and Prof. Arthur shows considerable boldness in cutting loose 

 from the old models, and attempting a natural grouping. The species number 

 12, one being new. 



The second paper describes the discovery of some Nostoc, probably Rivularia, 

 in certain Minnesota lakes, which was supposed to have caused the death of 

 many cattle drinking their waters. These same " bur-balls " were found by the 

 writer in great abundance in one of the small, swampy lakes along the Kanka- 

 kee river in Jasper county, Ind. A large drove of cattle were drinking from it, 

 but no ill-effects were heard of, although camping in the vicinity for a week 

 gave abundant opportunity. These Alga; have already been noticed by Dr. 

 Farlow in the May Gazette. 



Lectures delivered to the Employes of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, 

 by Drs. H. Newell Martin, H. Sewall, W. T. Sedgwick, and W. K. Brooks, of 

 the Johns Hopkins University. Baltimore, 1882. 8°, 98 pp. Illust. 



The marked success attending the delivery and distribution of these four 

 lectures should prove an incentive to like undertakings elsewhere. The third 

 lecture, on fermentation, by Dr. Sedgwick, is the only botanical one of the 

 series. Botany has many topics of equal interest to a general audience, and 

 ways might more frequently be devised to give those whose employment does 

 not permit of much reading, and of no investigation, some insight into the 

 more wonderful of the recent advances of science. 



North American Fungi, by J. B. Ellis. Centuries X and XI. Newfield, 1883. 



The continuance of this publication is a gratifying indication of the grow- 

 ing interest in this department of our science. Too great praise can not be be- 

 stowed upon the neatness and care, as well as the scientific accuracy with which 

 the volumes are prepared, qualities which make the work indispensable to the 

 investigator. In Century X the genera Agaricus, Marasmius, Polyporus, Hydnum, 

 Melanconium, and Peziza are represented by from five to nine species each, while 

 most of the other genera of the volume have but one representative. Century 

 XI is composed of Uredinew, excepting the last eleven examples, which belong 

 to the Ustttaginece. The determination and synonymy of this volume has been 

 largely the work of Dr. W. G. Farlow, of Harvard University. The principal 

 genera are Puccinia with thirty-six examples, JEcidium with twenty, Ustilago 

 with nine, and Pcridermium, Uromyces and Rcestelia with six each. Some new 

 species and changes of synonomy may be passed over for the present, as critical 

 notes by Dr. Farlow will soon appear in the proceedings of the American 

 Academy. 



