NEWS NOTES AND CURRENT COMMENT. 131 



been compiled by Mr. Lyster H. Dewey^nd comprises a con- 

 cise and full account of the tree, its native range, range under 

 cultivation, uses and products, conditions of successful culti- 

 vation, propagation, planting and cultivation, the distillation 

 of camphor -gum, refining, and the outlook for a future 

 market. 



W. A. Stiles, editor of Gcp'den and Forest, died October 

 6th. Shortly after leaving Yale-College he came to California 

 from New Jersey and was a member of the engineer-corps, 

 which located the line of the Central Pacific Railroad. He 

 was a man of many and varied interests and accomplishments, 

 being a remarkable mathematician, a politician in the best 

 sense and a lover of music as well as of nature. 



Of writings of Eastern botanists relating to Western 

 America, tardily claiming our attention, we have to note in 

 brief two issues of Prof. Greene's Pittonia. Part 16 con- 

 tains, among other things, a paper on " Ranunculaceous 

 Monotypes " and another on " New Western Plants." Part 

 17 contains descriptions of 5 new species of Eriogo- 

 num and 15 new species of clover, a goodly number of the 

 latter being from Middle California. There are various other 

 articles nomenclatorial and systematic. 



The seventh fascicle of the Phycotheca Boreali-Americana 

 just issued by Messrs. Collins, Holden and Setchell contains 

 the following Californian species: 317, Sphceropleaannulina; 

 323, Scytisiphon lomentarius; 327, Taonia Lenneb acker cb; 

 329, Lemanea annulata; 330, Nemalion Andersonii ; 332, 

 Gelidinm crinale var. spathulatum ; 332, Agardhiella Coul- 

 teri; 335, Niiophyllum latissimum; 336, N. mnlHlobum; 

 337, N. uncinatum; 338, Ricardia Montagnei; 339, Poly- 

 siphonia Baileyi; 343, Platythamnion heteromorphum. 



Inasmuch as the cultivation of cacti removed from their 

 native habitat is attendedWl with difiiculties of a nature seri- 

 ous to the ecologist, no site for a cactus-garden could be better 

 than one in the midst of the cactus-region, where the species 

 may be grown side by side under perfectly normal conditions. 



