BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 55 



1 am unable to speak of the text of Mr. Williamson's work at the present time, but 

 the collection of fift} -nine etcliin<rs with which he proposes to illustrate his book alone 

 would be worth more than the i)ric(' of the book to any fern student. I am delighted 

 with them, and if the whole work is completed in the manner in which the etchings 

 now in my possession indicate that it will be, then it cannot fail to prove a most valu- 

 able addition to our fern literature. 



That the stud}^ of our native ferns is on the increase, and likely to become as popu- 

 lar as the same study is in England, where valuable and costly works on the subject 

 have multi])lied, the very gratifying success with which Prof. Eaton's si)lendid work on 

 the "Ferns of North America" is meeting sufUciently indicates. 



There is, therefore, ample room for such special hand books as Mr. Williamson's 

 is intended to be, and I sincerely trust that the author will meet with a generous en- 

 couragement and success. — (tEO. E. Davenpokt. 



SouTHEUN Plants. — Mr. A. 11. Curtiss, of Jacksonville, Floriila, jiroposes to issue 

 sets of dried plants of the Southern United States, in installments or fascicles of 250 

 species each. Several sets of the tirst fascicle have been sent to us, and are deposited 

 here, and one of them is now being added to this Herbarium. 1 wish to say that the 

 specimens are so well selecteil, so ample and comi)lete, so well named — all witli full 

 printed laliels in neat form — that it is a pleasure to look at Ihem, and that I consider 

 them very cheap indeed at the price tixed, namely $20 for 250 species. — Asa Gkay 

 llcrhit rlani of liar curd Uiiircrsitij. 



BiBLio(JHAPHi(AL IxDEX TO NoKTii AMEUitAN BoTANY, by Screuo Watsou. Part 

 I. Polyi)etahe. — This has long been a sadly needed work, and Mr. Watson has gone 

 through an amount of necessary labor for the benefit of botanists for which we can 

 never be too grateful. The Botany west of the Mississii)pi is especially .scatteretl and 

 very few have access to books that can enable them to trace u}) the authorities and sy- 

 nonomy of all of our western plants. This work meets the trouble exactly, brings to- 

 gether all these scattered references and enables the botanLst of the humblest means to 

 l)ossess the names, synonomy and authorities of .'ill the species of North American 

 l)lants. To keep pace with the changes that are being made in names is imi)oi-tant, and 

 we would advise all of our contributors to send for the work at (mce and then some will 

 find out that the names they sometimes send us have gone out of date long ago. The 

 work is |)ublislied by the Smithsonian Institution and the })rice isjtixed at $2.00 not half 

 the cost. Copies can be had for that i)rice l)y ai)[)lying to Sereno Watson, Cambridge, 

 Mass., Herbarium of Harvard University. The Polypetahe of North America sum up 

 as follows: Orders, 09; Genera, 545; Si)ecies, 8,038. 



Botanical Contkiimitions, l)y Asa (^ray. This is No. 25 of these Contributions 

 by Dr. Gray and Ave hojje that the good work will go on for many years lo come. It is 

 divided into four parts. Part 1 is upon American EUitiues. Instead of a single 

 species of Elaiiuc it seems that we have four: E. triiuu\i<i.,'6^:\\^w\\x., E. Ainericnna, 

 Arn., E. hvdcliyxperuKi, n. sp., and E. ('alifoniicn, n. sj). Part 2 contains the descrip- 

 tions of two new genera of Aeinif/icrc/t', named Curlinrrtf/ftfia uikI (intcsiti. The former 

 is rei)resen1ed by two species, found in Texas and Arizona; the latter by one species 

 which ranges from Northern Alabjinia and Southern Tennessee to Eastern Texas. 

 Part '6 is devoted to the description of new Axfnujali. We always expect a liberal share 

 of this genus and we are not tlisappointcd, for Dr. (iray here adds 17 new species. Part 

 4 contains "Miscellaneje," being a descrii)lion of various new species. Dr. Parry de- 

 scribes a Boykiiiut, and Dr. T. C. Porter, an ActineUu,Xo which Dr. Gray adds a new 

 species in each of the following genera: Galiiini, Aster, Ericierou, Laphmain, Actinella 

 and Arnica. 



