REVIEWS AND CRITICISMS. 9 



Hechtia montana. Dioecious; leaves uuinerous in ji dense 

 rosette, long attenuate from the base, 2^—3 dm. long, 2-3 cm. wide 

 at b;i,se, white-scu'.'fy below, greener and striate above, simiate- 

 spinose, the spines usually recurved, stem leaves 1-1^ dm. long, 

 8-10 ram. wide, spinose, sessile by a broad base; panicle white- 

 scurfy, 4-5 dm. long, the numerous branches sinjple, 8 cm. and less 

 long; bracts 3 cm. long, 8 mm. wide; long prickly-serrate and 

 gradually becoming smaller to the ends of the panicle: male flowers 

 4 mm. long on pedicels of the same length, sepals deltoid, acute, 3 

 mm. long, petals twice as long, cymbiform, cieamy-v.hite, rudi- 

 mentary styles very short: female flowers on pedicels 6-8 mm. long, 

 with narrower and more acuminate, persistent sepals and petals hav- 

 ing an evident mid-nerve; capsule 1 cm. long with a short beak, 

 septicidal at first, finally splitting loculicidally about half way down. 



Common about San Jose del Cabo along the base of the moun- 

 tains, sometimes completely covering large areas. Near to H. ped- 

 icellata Watson, differing chiefly in the more acuminate-beaked 

 and more rugose capsule and the longer acuminate persistent petals 

 of the female flower. The pauicle at maturity loses its floccose 

 scurfiness. 



REVIEWS AND CRITICISMS. 



American Algce: Century III, 1898. Issued by Josephine E. 

 TiLDEN (Minneapolis, Minn,). 

 The third century of Miss Tilden's American Algae is of consid- 

 erable interest to workers on the Pacific Coast, since it contains 

 quite a number of the larger and more conspicuous marine forms. 

 A number of specimens, however (notably numbers 204, 206, 207, 

 208, 209, 211, 212, 214, and 243 in our copy), are either so very 

 fragmentary or so imperfectly preserved as to be of no value for 

 comparison. One notes also that several of the more striking and 

 well-known forms are masquerading under the names of quite 

 different species, or under names which have been abandoned. A 

 few of these may be mentioned, as follows: No. 201, Peyssonnellia 

 Dubyi, is Hildenbrandtia prototypus Nardo, not sterile, as the 

 label says, but with good fruit; No. 202 is not Petrocelis cruenta. 



