BOTANICAL GAZTETE. jg 



anatomy there should be regular methods of description, such as have 

 been so successfully employed in systematic botany. The progress of 

 botany now, as of all sciences, is towards simplicity, as for instance, all 

 the parts of plants, the most complicated, are reduced to root, stem, 

 and leaves, and these in turn are but multiplied cells, proceeding from 

 a plasma of uniform appearance. So methods of description should 

 be reduced to like simplicity and comprehensiveness. 



The author hopes that the progress of the science and in a very 

 small degree the application of his own counsels may render useless in 

 a few years the great part of the present volume. The last part of it, 

 however, will be long consulted, for it is a grand list of herbariums that 

 are of use in authenticating species. From this list can be learn- 

 ed just where at present are the herbariums of authors who have pub- 

 lished and the famous collections ot explorers. For this botanists 

 will be very grateful for it will help in securing information that might 

 not otherwise have been obtained. 



Albino Arethusa bulbosa. — Mr. Fred Hoard, of Provi- 

 dence, R. I., has just brought me a perfect albino of Arethusa bulbosa, 

 L. The yellow lines of the labellum are retained. — W. W. Bailey. 



Recent Publications. — Catalogue of North American Musci. 

 Eugene A. Rau and A. B. Harvey. This neat catalogue of over 

 fifty pages is intended to furnish a check and exchange list, and also a 

 basis for the arrangement of genera, etc., in herbaria. It undoubted- 

 ly supplies a want felt by many botanists, and will be received with 

 thankfulness The range is a large one. including all North America, 

 every authentic species reported from Mexico to the Arctic region, ap- 

 pearing in the list. Of course, the species are all numbered to facili- 

 tate exchanges, and the numbers mount up pretty well, rising to 

 1,252, distributed among 177 genera. 



Catalogue of Trees and Shrubs, native and introduced in the Hor- 

 ticultural Gardens adjacent to Horticultural Hall, Fairmount Park, 

 Philadelphia. This catalogue contains a hundred pages and is a good one 

 but no man's name appears as author and we will have to take it as an 

 anonymous production. The catalogue seems to be made more for 

 the convenience of gardeners and amateur botanists, than for pro- 

 fessional botanists. A great deal of work has been done in the mat- 

 ter of synonyms and brief descriptions in the hope that the species may 

 be recognized Both genera and species are arranged in alphabetical 

 order, and as the author acknowledges his sin in this matter, his rea- 

 sons seem to be very good. It is a capital catalogue and does just 

 what it professes to do, and we can imagine nothing more convenient 

 in the hands of a botanist visting Fairmount Park, or one desiring to 

 know what was under cultivation there. 



Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club, May.— The noticeable 

 feature in this number is Mr. Davenport's description of a new fern 

 accompanied by an excellent plate, drawn by Mr. C. E. Faxon. The 

 new fern is Notholtrna Grayi, and was collected among the mountains 



