BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 264 



Goodyera pilbescens. — During the summer of 1880, desiring 

 to get a flo'wering specimen of the above named plant to press, I vis- 

 ited the well-known locations hereabouts throughout the season, but 

 was unable to find a solitary plant in flower, nor do I think any of the 

 plants in this reighborhood flowered. The previous year there were 

 the usual number of flowering plants, and so there are this year. It 

 would be interesting to know if this is a common occurrence or the 

 result of an accident. — Joseph Meehan, Germantown, Phila. 



''Our Native FerilS."~This is the title of a very neat and handy 

 volume by Lucien M. Underwood, of the Wesleyan University, 

 Bloomington, Illinois. 



The author has adopted the plan of Gray's Lessons and Manual 

 for his work, dividing it into two parts, the first being devoted to a 

 brief study of the habits, structure and classification of ferns, with ap- 

 propriate sections on germination, fructification and the identification 

 of species, and the second part to a systematic description of genera 

 and species arranged in accordance with an original synoptical key. 



As will readily be seen, the plan is an excellent one, and has 

 been well carried out by the author, who is not only deserving of 

 great credit, but the thanks of all fern students as well. 



The section^ of the first part are well calculated to introduce a 

 beginner to the suidy of the interesting plants of which the author 

 has himself been so appreciative a student, and contain scarcely any- 

 thing for adverse criticism. It is, however, to be regretted that the 

 term '^r/iizoi/ia" should have been used in so broad and general a sense 

 as to include all kinds of rootslocks. The term has a more restricted 

 meaning to which it should be limited, merely standing for one kind 

 of a rootstock, just as a caudex does for another kind. 



If one general term is to be used it is better to adopt that of 

 "rootstock" in accordance with the excellent practice of Prof. Eaton 

 in Ferns of N. Am., a work, by the way, with which Mr. Faxon's 

 name ought to have been associated in the chapter on "Fern Litera- 

 ture." The artificial synopsis is an excellent one, that will prove to 

 be of much service to amateurs in identifying specimens, and, so far as 

 examined, the descriptions are concise and clear. 



The illustrations, although not of a very high order, assist the 

 explanations in the text, which throughout is clearly written. The 

 two glossaries of technical terms at the end might as well have been 

 combined in one, and it may be in place in connection with them to 

 state that Aspidium Boottii was named for Wm. Boott, who discovered 

 it. and not Dr. Francis. The author's views in general are conserva- 

 tive, and his book, which is to be commended, will no doubt serve 

 the purpose for which it was intended admirably. — Geo. E. 1).a.ven- 



PORT. 



Nasturtium laeustre.— I found this plant in a little pond near 

 Lincoln, 111. It had been flowering for some time, and as the racemes 

 grew longer, the plant seemed to sink lower and lower into the water. 

 Some had a few leaves still above the water, but most of them had ev- 



