ERBARIUlvT, 



-^^ 



Botanical Gazette. 



Vol. VI. JULY, 18»1. No. 



Editorial. — The cenus Senecio contains more than i,ooo 

 species, but still new ones are being described. 



On pace 224 in the last Gazette it is stated that Yucca macro- 

 carpa, Engehiiann, has seeds "rugose-riincinated." Of course the 

 manuscript shows "'rugose ruminated." 



Mr. W. W. 1)A1Eey has been ajipointed Professor of Natural 

 History (Botany) and Curator of the Herbaria at Brown University, 

 to meet the requirements of S. V. Ohiey's will. It is a well deserved 

 apijointment and one very gratifying to Prof. Bailey's friends. 



I)k. Gray is back in England again from his trip on the Conti- 

 nent, with headquarters, as formerly, at Kew. 



A late copy of Nature announces the death of Dr. Ludwig Ra- 

 henhorst of Meissen (Saxony). He was a well known botanist and 

 editor of the I/cdici'^ia. 



Mr. John" Sanderson of Natal has just died. He was an indefa- 

 tigable explorer of the South African flora and in his honor was named 

 tile genus SaiiJcrsoiiia. 



Professor P. F. Reinsch has for some time been studying with 

 the microscope sections of coal. Having made his sections in a pe- 

 culiar and (litficult w;-uy he has obtained 1,200 perfect ones, and with 

 these he upsets all our previous notions in regard to the nature of 

 coal. The Pr()fessor does not expect us to accept his views, for we are 

 creatures of habit, but he does e.xpect us to help observe and "carry 

 the light of science into this dirk field of hereditary beliefs." The 

 central ideas are as follows : The organic forms of the coal are Pro- 

 tophytes, that is, "plants without distinct cell structure, with spora- 

 dic enclosures of spores and tissue fragments of cryptogamous and still 

 higher plants." Prof. Reinsch groups these forms into seven generic 

 types, and fifty-two specific forms are described and figured. The 

 well known rai)idity with which such low forms under favorable con- 

 ditions proi)agate would seem to account easily fi)r the enormous ac- 

 cumulation of the vegetable material of our coal measures. The 

 different kinds ot coal might also be exjjlained by the prevailing pro- 

 tophytes of the stratum. In the last American Nutiii ali.^t G^oxga A. 

 Koenig gives a good review of this work of Prdf. Reinsch. 



Dr. Ai-kxanher Dickson in tiie \:\.'^\. Journal of Botany considers, 

 with the help of two plates, the morphology of the pitcher of Cepha- 



