BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 175 



was exhibited a drawing, natural size, of one of the remarkable crim- 

 son-colored pitchers of XepcntJies sanguinea from Malacca; this cylin- 

 drical pitcher measured twelve inche^ long and nine inches in cir- 

 cumference. In a paper on Intlorescence, Dr. Maxwell Masters, discus- 

 ses schemes of classification and proposes a rearrangement under the 

 heads of monopodia! or indefinite, choi'ipodial or dichotomous and 

 pleiopodial or definite. 



United States Species of Lycoperdon, by Chas. H. Peck. A. M. — The 

 nature and object of this paper cannot be giv^en better than in the 

 prefatory note of its author. "The literature of the puff-balls of the 

 United States is very much scattered and in some instances scarcely 

 accessible, the descriptions are often imperfect and unsatisfactory 

 and the technical terms employed in describing the species are scarce- 

 ly intelligible, without explanation, to any except mycologists. It 

 has therefore seemed desirable to bring together the descriptions of 

 all our species, so far as known, and, for the purpose of rendering 

 them more satisfactory and intelligible to the general reader, to re- 

 model them, giving them more uniformity of style and more com- 

 pleteness of detail and employing the strictly technical terms only 

 after having given an explanation of their meaning. Besides this 

 the specific descriptions have been supplemented b}" remarks upon 

 tlie general and more obvious characters, and the distinguishing 

 features of such species as are closely allied and liable to be confused 

 have been specially mentioned. It is believed that the species thus 

 described can be identified without the aid of a microscopic exami- 

 nation of the spores, but for the sake of completeness the spore char- 

 acters have been given in all cases in which they were ascertainable." 

 It seems that we have nineteen species of Lycoperdon^ and with this 

 paper as a guide it also seems that any one ought to be able to dis- 

 tinguish them. 



Graminese, by Geo. Vasey, M. D. — Although there is no statement 

 of the fact we judge that this handsomely printed pamphlet is an ex- 

 tract from the final report on the Botany of the Wheeler Survey. Dr. 

 Vasey has lo.ig had a fondness for the grasses and has here made a 

 careful and full report. Descriptions are given of all grasses not 

 described in easily attainable reports, and references indicate plates, 

 though none appear in this extract. Of the 122 species catalogued 

 four are described as wqw., Vilfa minima^ Poa Wheeleri, Festuca Thur- 

 heri and Trisetum Woljii, the last being dedicated to the indefatigu- 

 able collector of the expedition. 



Descriptions of sonu new species of North American Mosses, by Leo 



