SHORT ARTICLES. 85 



Recent Activity in Nokth AxIIErican Agrostology. — Con- 

 siderable activity lias recently been displayed by the comparatively 

 new Division of Agrostology of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, in the publication of papers, which not only bear upon 

 the economic aspect of the grasses and forage plants of North 

 America, but also contain descriptions of several new species and 

 varieties. 



Bulletin No. 4, issued February 6, 1897, contains six papers: 

 The genus Ixophorus; A list of the grasses collected by Dr. E. 

 Palmer in the vicinity of Acapulco, Mexico, 1894-95; Some Mexican 

 grasses collected by E. W. Nelson in Mexico, 1894-95; Some Amer- 

 ican Panicums in tlie herbarium Berolinense and in the herbarium 

 of Willdenow; Native and introduced species of the genera Hor- 

 deum and Agropyron; and Miscellaneous notes and descriptions of 

 new species. In the fifth paper a new species of Hordeum is de- 

 scribed under the name Hordeum boreale, and a new variety, 

 depressum, of H. nodosum. Neither the types nor type-localities 

 are cited for these or some other novelties, a fault likely to cause 

 trouble to future students of the genus, and one which will facilitate 

 the re-naming of some of Mr. Scribner's plants, and their possible 

 relegation to the catalogue of species incognitce. 



Several new species and varieties of Agropyron are described in 

 this Bulletin and the new generic name Chatochloa, Scribner, is 

 published to replace the Setaria of Palisot de Beauvois and the 

 Ixophorus of Nash. 



Bulletin No. 8, issued May 6, 1897, contains two papers: New or 

 little-known grasses; and Leaf-structure of Jouvea and of Eragrostis 

 obtusifiora. 



We must protest against the cumbersome title, with which these 

 Bulletins are burdened. While Professor Scribner so far sees the 

 advantage of abbreviation as to use trinomials, it appears not to 

 have occurred to him that the citation of the place of publication 

 of these new species will be a ver}^ awkward task. However much 

 one can abbreviate it, a citation such as "Scribn. & Smith, in U. S. 

 Dep. Agric, Div. Agrost. [Grass and Forage Plant Investigations], 

 Bull. No. 4, p. 36, PI. V, Feb. 6, 1897," is unnecessarily long and 

 inconvenient. The title "Studies on American Grasses" suggested 



