8 ERYTHEA. 



authority to the fifth volume of the second edition of Rabenhorst's 

 Kryptogamenflora, will be welcome to all those who, having been 

 attracted toward this interesting group of plants, have yet been 

 prevented from studying them by the lack of a suitable monograph 

 of moderate cost. Professor Migula, at the urgent solicitation of the 

 editors of the Rabenhorst, has supplied this need. The handy 

 volume before us contains a general account of the morphology and 

 development of the Characese, directions for collecting and preserving, 

 and finally a systematic account of the genera and species. The 

 European species and varieties are given in completeness of detail, 

 and every species except one, and many varieties are figured most 

 carefully and excellently. Reference is made to species and varie- 

 ties occurring in other countries also, so that the scope of the useful- 

 ness of the book is world-wide. — w. a. s. 



NEW8 NOTES AND CURRENT COMMENT. 



We regret to record the death, on Dec. 5, 1898, of Mr. G. H. 

 Hicks, First Assistant in the U. S. Division of Botany at Washing- 

 ton and Specialist in charge of the seed-testing work. Mr. Hicks 

 was one of the founders, and for many years President, of the Gray 

 Botanical Chapter of the Agassiz Association, and for some time 

 past has been Editor-in-Chief of the Asa Gray Bulletin. 



A LIST of the " Lichens of Southern California " in the form of a 

 20-page pamphlet has been issued by Dr. H. E. Hasse, of the 

 Soldiers' Home, Los Angeles County. Many of the determinations 

 were made by Dr. W. Nylander, who also furnishes the diagnosis 

 for some half dozen new species. Over three hundred species are 

 listed, yet this number is, according to Dr. Hasse, but a " tithe of 

 the interesting lichens " of that part of the state. 



Prof. Carl Schroter, Director of the Botanical Museum and 

 Professor of Botany at the Swiss Polytechnic in Zurich, who ie now 

 taking a journey around the world for the purpose of making a 

 special study of Economic Botany, recently visited the grounds and 

 gardens of the University of California. Professor Molisch, of the 

 University of Prague, has also, not long since, been traveling through 



