320 BOTANY. 



3fontana, by Prof. J. W. Chickering, in the Balletin TJ. S. Geol. and Geog. 

 Survej". The American Jonrnal of Science contains a paper by Prof. C. 

 S. Sargent on the Forests of Central Nevada, icith some remarlcs on those of 

 the adjacent regions, in which the comparative distribution of trees and 

 shrubs in the Eocky Mountain, the Nevada, and the Sierra Nevada 

 regions is discussed, and in the same journal is a paper by Professor 

 Gray on the Pertinacity and Predominance of Weeds, in which he comes 

 to the conclusion that " self-fertilization is neither the cause, nor a j)er- 

 ceptible cause, of the jirepotency of the European plants which are weeds 

 in, North America." In addition to the papers above enumerated are 

 two others by foreign writers, which treat of North American plants ; 

 one by A. W. Bennett, on PolygaUc Americana', in the Journal of Botany, 

 and one on the Flora of the Saint Croix arid Virgin Islands, published in 

 the Bulletin IJ. S. National Museum, by Baron H. P. A. Eggers. 



Of the very numerous papers on local European floras nothing need 

 be said at present. The Conspectus Florce Euroixcxe, by Nyman, of 

 which the tirst fasciculus was announced in 1878, has been continued, 

 and has for its useful object the collation of the floras of the different 

 European countries. Of foreign works should be mentioned the second 

 volume of Hooker's Flora of British India and the continuation of 

 Boissier's Flora OrientaUs. One of the most sumptuous works which 

 appeared during the year was Aroidew Maxim ilianw, by Schott and 

 Peyritsch, containing magnificent colored folio plates of the Aroids col- 

 lected during the journey of the Emperor Maximilian I to Brazil. The 

 Archives du Museum contain monographs of the genera Lignstrum and 

 Syringa, by Decaisne, and in the Proc. Bot. Soc. of Edinburgh is a 

 monograph by Bennett of the genus HalophiJa, which enters into the 

 microscopic structure of the species. In an elaborate paper, entitled 

 Methodili der Speciesheschreihung und Rulms, the writer. Dr. Otto Kuntze, 

 discusses the variability of the species of that genus, and proposes a new 

 method of nomenclature by means of symbols, a i^roposition which has met 

 with very little favor from systematic botanists. Beccari, in a work issued 

 in parts under the title of Malesia, has published the results of his travels 

 in the Malayan Archipelago, and the same author in the Zeitschrift 

 Oesterr. Yereins describes a gigantic aroid, AmorphophaUus Titanum, 

 from Sumatra. In this connection reference should be made to Hooker 

 and Ball's Marocco and the Great Atlas, which, although not a purely 

 botanical work, treats largely of the plants of that country. The Flora 

 Brasiliensis has been continued, and in 1879 there appeared the Gram- 

 inew, by Doll; Loheliacccc, by Kanitz; Plumhaginece and Plantaginew, by 

 Schmidt. An important economical as well as botanical contribution is 

 Todaro's Account of the Cultivation of Cotton in Italy, followed by a 

 monograph on the genus Gossypium, a work published at Eome and 

 consisting of about three hundred pages of text with twelve folio plates. 



