Botanical Gazette. 



Vol. V. AUGUST AND SP]PTP:Mr,ER. 1880. Nos. 8 & 9. 



Editorial. — Dr. Asa Gray sailed for Europe September 4th, to 

 be absent a year or two. His head quarters will be Kew Gardens, 

 but he will probably visit several of the lar^e herbaria upon the con- 

 linent This trip is in connection with Dr. Gray's work upon the 

 Synoptical Flora of North America. It is to be hoped that this 

 crowning work of a long botanical life will be speedily completed, al- 

 though the author has met with very little financial encouragement thus 

 far. To be poorly patronized seems to be the necessary accompani- 

 ment of very great works, for they are necessarily expensive. The 

 Synoptical Flora, though, should be in the hands of every North 

 American botanist, especially those to whom the author has uniformly 

 given a kind hearing and prompt response. A note to Dr. Goodale 

 or Sereno Watson at Cambridge would probably elicit all desired in- 

 formation as to price. 



A large cot lection of the products of Indian plants has just 

 been received at the Botanic Ciardens, Cambridge, from Kew. The 

 collection is a part of what was put up in India for the Vienna Exhi- 

 bition and is very rich in its representation of Indian drugs, food- 

 stuffs and vegetable products used in the arts and manufactures. For 

 illustrating lectures upon economic botany it is very complete, as there 

 are representative^ of useful products from nearly every family. The 

 University of Wisconsin, Purdue University, and Wabash College, 

 Ind., are under very great obligations to the Director of the Botanic 

 Gardens for very complete duplicate collections. 



In the July number of the Gazette we announced the pro- 

 posed exploration of the botany of the West Indies, under the direc- 

 tion of Baron Eggers, of St. Thomas. We should add that the par- 

 ticular aim of this exploration will be to make known the botany of 

 the great islands of Hayti, Dominica, and Porto Rico, of which very 

 little is really known, and that little is of ancient date, and little ac- 

 cessible. Also, that it is intended to have the plants arranged and 

 studied by high authorities, and generally named before distribution. 

 It having been suggested that the price for phaenogamous plants, an- 

 nounced at .$12.50 the century, is rather high, we understand that it 

 is intended to bring it down to the usual ten dollars the hundred spec- 

 imens. But in this case a good number of subscribers should be se- 

 cured. 



Dr. Dodel-Port, of Zurich, has pul)lished the first two parts of 

 a new botanical work. The title is "Illustrirtes Ptlanzenleben." The 



