NEWS NOTES AND CURRENT COMMENT. 129 



obovate, very broadly clawed, If inches long by 6 inches wide, 

 lips recurved; standards as long, oblanceolate, unguiculate, 3 

 inches broad; style branches 1^ inches long; crests large, 

 denticulately toothed; capsule ovate oblong, long acuminate 

 to apex, abruptly to base. 



Described from fresh flowers collected at Eureka, Hum- 

 boldt Co.; common in that region and forming great masses. 

 Its habitat, growth, and thick rhizome are suggestive of I. 

 longipeiala. The flower is more that of /. Douglasiana. It 

 has the gracefully drooping leaves of that species, but the 

 branched leafy scape, the distant bract, and the capsule are 

 very distinctive, and the range of color quite different. I 

 take pleasure in naming this beautiful Iris after the late Dr. 

 Sereno Watson in remembrance of many kindnesses. 



SHORT ARTICLES. 



Correction in Nomenclature. — The grass known as Mil- 

 ium mnUifloriun Cav. is the Piptatheriim muliijiorum of 

 Beauvois and has been referred to Urachne parvijlora Trin^ 

 which is Agrosiis miliacea Linn. 



Bentbam & Hooker united Pipfafhei'um Beauv. and 

 Urachne Trin. with Oryzopsis, and have been followed by 

 Hackel; this plant should, therefore, be called Oryzopsis 

 ~f miliacea (L.). . J. Burtt Davy. 



Centaurea solstitialis in Colusa Co. — Mr. W. R. 

 Mumma writes, that the St. Barnabas' Thistle was first seen 

 near Grand Island eighteen years ago (1879), but that he can- 

 not learn, from whence or how it came there. 



NEWS NOTES AND CURRENT COMMENT. 



Dr. p. Magnus of Berlin visited San Francisco in Septem- 

 ber and was a guest of the botanists of the vicinage. 



Mr. J. B. Davy of the University of California is now in 

 England for a limited period. He expects to spend a few 

 weeks at Kew in looking up early Califoinian types. 



Mr. S. B. Parish, of San Bernardino, California, has re- 



