120 ERYTHEA. 



apparent in his work, but the effect of it, unfortunately, is marred 

 by a lack of clearness in presentation — a lack of attendance to 

 rhetoric safeguards and grammatical usage. While lapses in syntax 

 may occasionally happen to many of us not professed purists, the 

 writer's pronouns too frequently fail to keep faith with their ante- 

 cedents. — w. L. J. 



NEWS NOTES AND CURRENT COMMENT. 



An account of the "Ferns of Nicaragua," by B. Shimek, forms 

 the larger part of Bulletin No. 2, Vol. IV, of the Laboratories of 

 Natural History of the University of Iowa. The author calls 

 Tropical America " the fern-paradise of the earth," on account of 

 the total number of species, the number of peculiar species, and 

 variety of form. In the contest for light, some species send their 

 rootstocks upward along the trunks and branches of trees; some- 

 times the part, which connects with the soil, dies away, and an epi- 

 phyte results, illustrating what is evidently the epiphytic origin of 

 ferns, which form no inconspicuous portion of the aerial flora. 

 Twenty plates accompany the text. 



A circular has been distributed by the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, requesting that botanists 

 of the United States, acquainted with the composition of their local 

 flora, cooperate with Mr. F. V. Coville, Chief of the Division of 

 Botany, " in determining the distribution and degree of abundance 

 of the more important of our medicinal plants. Many of these 

 plants are collected ou an extensive scale, so that they have become 

 scarce, where formerly abundant, and some are in great danger of 

 extinction. It is,, therefore^, highly desirable that steps should be 

 taken to introduce them into cultivation or to regulate their collec- 

 tion ; but this can not be done, until we possess a more complete 

 knowledge of their climatic requirements and distribution." A copy 

 of the circular, which lists the more important medicinal plants and 

 provides blank columns for the data requested, will be sent to those 

 who are in a position to assist in the work. 



Prof. C. O. Whitman, in a paper on " Some of the Functions 

 and Features of a Biological Station" (Science, N. S., vii. 37), 



