BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 105 



study of Fungi. The fame waitino- to reward the careful examination and study of the 

 Fungi of the Mississippi Valley will be found sufficient to gratify tlie amhitiun of tlie 

 most aspiring botanist. 



The State of New York, perhaps, has been more thoroughly studied thus far in refei-- 

 ence to its Fungal Flora than any other State of the Union. The State Botanist, Prof. 

 Ciiarles H. Peck, has now for several years devoted himself with unwearied industry to 

 the identification of species with European forms and to the naming and describing of 

 native species. 



To illustrate what we may state in reference to Fungi in general let us take as an ex- 

 ample the genus Agtirinif!. And I maj' here remark in passing that of this noble genus 

 Prof. Peck has himself named and described nearly 150 species. More than half the 

 species of this genus thus far found in North America are European and ma}' be deter- 

 mined by the use of Cooke's Hand Book of British Fungi, or better still by Fries' Hy- 

 menomycetes Europiei. A large part of the remainder will be foiuid in Prof. Peck's 

 reports in the jjublished volumes of the New York State Museum of Natural History. 

 A few other species and all new species should be submitted to i'rof. Peck or some 

 other Fungologist for description. 



The study of North American Fungi lias as yet been chietly contined to the P2ast- 

 ern United States ; the Fungi of the Mississippi Valley have received but little atten- 

 tion. To illustrate what yet remains to be done for the Fungal Flora of North Ameri- 

 ca let us refer again to the genus .1i7«/7Vm.s-. Elias Fries in his llymenomycetes Euro- 

 pud, Edition 2, 18T4, enumei'ates 1,202 species. Scarcely 400 species of Agaricins have 

 as yet been determined in this country. Who can say that the number of our species is 

 greatly inferior to that of Europe? Maj^ it not be safe to say that half the xpfcicn^ iiumii 

 genera^ (iiid Home onkrif of North Aiiieriraii Fungi are not yet gtiidicd ? 



Mr. Charles C. Frost enumerates in the Amherst Catalogue upwards of 1,200 species 

 of Fungi, all found in the single locality about Brattleboro, Vt. 155 sjiecies belong to 

 the highest genus Agdrirux, and nearly fiOO to the highest family, the Hymenomv- 

 CETES. It is not likely that every locality is so rich in species of Fungi as this one; 

 but it is very probable that their number always exceeds that of the Flowering Plants. 



The student will not find the genera and species of the higher Fungi, the Aoari- 

 c;iNi and Polyporei, for example, any more difficult to make out than those of many 

 orders of Flowering Plants. Prof. Peck's Twentj-third Report contains a >[anual of 

 the most common species of the higher Fungi, which forms a good introduction to the 

 study of North American Fungi. Valuable directions in reference to the collection and 

 preservation of specimens will be found in several of these Reports and especially in 

 the Twenty-seventh. — A. P. Morgan, Datjton, Ohio. 



Botany FN Japan. — In a private letter from Dr. D. B. McCartee of the Tm|)erial 

 L'niversitj' of Japan, the following is of general interest: — [Ed.] 



"The Japanese have jiaid a great deal of attention to Botany, and have published 

 many books, some of them ([uite expensive ones, on the sul)ject. They arrange the 

 genera after the Linn;ean System, although some of them give the 'Xatuial Orders,' 

 substituting Jiipanese names for tiie English or \a\.V\\\ ones. The illustrations are quite 

 well drawn and the minute i)arts are frequently drawn magnitied, so that with the 

 habitat and description accompanying, the identitication is generally comparatively 

 easy. The Japanese also have colleges of Agriculture, and |)ubiish a Monthly Maga- 

 zine- on agricultural subjects, and the Department of Education is now issuing a work 

 ill parts on the economical i)i-o(lucts of the difterent provinces of Japan, with well exe- 

 cuted illustrations. 



Some notes on Variations in Plants in Iowa (ob.served for the most part in 

 .Inly and August, 1878). — A white Vernouia, found near Chariton, apparently a var. of 

 Vtnioiiiafiisriciddta, Michx., specimens tine and abundant. 



