NEWS NOTES AND CURRENT COMMENT. 81 



are not always familiar to foreign ears, nor are they always to be 

 found in the dictionaries. AVe in America are by no means wholly 

 free from a similar error, but are apt not to notice it / until it is 

 j)erpetrated in a foreign language. 



It is to be hoped, that this highly interesting and instructive 

 book will prove the forerunner of many like it, whose appearance 

 cannot but stimulate and aid the study of geographical and 

 ecological botany. — J. Burtt Davy. 



NEWS NOTES AND CURRENT COMMENT. 



The fiftieth anniversary of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science will be celebrated at the annual meeting 

 in Boston, August 22 to 27. 



We are happy to learn that an illustrated monograph of the 

 Californian Hepaticre, which M. A. Howe has had in preparation 

 for several years past, is now approaching completion. The author 

 of this paper is a graduate student at Columbia University, and 

 has lately received from that institution the degree of Doctor of 

 Philosophy, his dissertation upon the Californian Hepaticse being 

 accepted as a thesis. 



At the May commencement of the University of California; 

 graduate degrees in botany were conferred upon four students: The 

 degree of Master of Science upon F. T. Bioletti (Thesis : Notes on 

 the Genus Nemophila) ; C. P. Nott (Thesis : The Classification and 

 Distribution of the Species of Nitophyllum Grew occurring on the 

 Coast of California) ; and Clara L. Williams (Thesis: The Origin 

 of the Karyokinetic Spindle in Passiflora ceruhea): The Degree of 

 Doctor of Philosophy upon Willis L. Jepson (Thesis: A Flora of 

 Western Middle California). 



Among recent changes in the botanical staffs of American 

 universities we have to note that Prof. C. R. Barnes of the Univer- 

 sity of Wisconsin has been appointed Professor of Physiology 

 in the Department of Botany at the University of Chicago. 

 Dr. R. A. Harper of Lake Forest University succeeds Prof. Barnes 

 at Wisconsin. 



