dZ4: BOTANY. 



DISEASES OF PLANTS. 



During the year numerous notices have appeared in regard to the 

 spread of tlie American vine mildew, Peronospora viticola, to the vine- 

 yards of Europe, where it is said to be causing great harm, especially in 

 Italy. The fungus has been found in several parts of France, Switzer- 

 land, Germany as far east as Austria, and in Italy. Eathay has de- 

 scribed a deformity of cherry trees produced by Exoascus Wiesneri. 

 Hartig has published a number of papers on injurious fungi in a peri- 

 odical called JJntersuchungen aus dem Forsthotanisclien Tnsfitut, the princi- 

 l)al of which are JioselUnia qucrcina, which attacks the roots of oaks ; 

 Phytophthora Fagi, which attacks seedling beeches ; Peziza WiUkommii, 

 which causes a distortion of the larch ; and J^ectria Cucurhitula, which 

 attacks the bark of spruces. The coffee-leaf disease, Hemileia vastatrix, 

 has been studied by D. Morris, and a i)reliminary report on the same 

 subject has been made by H. M. Ward, who was sent by the British 

 Government to Ceylon to investigate the subject. Die Blasenrost Pilze 

 der Conifereii, a monograph of the genus Peridermimn, by Von Thiimen, 

 contains an account of the aecidial forms attacking Coni/erw, and 

 includes a number of species found in the United States. 



THALLOPHYTES. 



Algce. — Kew American species of algte have been described in the 

 Bull. Torrey club by Wolle. In the first annual Kep't. Mass. State Board 

 of Health, Charity, and Lunacy is a paper by W. G. Farlow on Some Im- 

 piirities of Brm]dng-^Yater, Mith two plates, illustrating the common 

 si>ecies which produce the disagreeable odor sometimes found in the 

 water sui)plies of Boston. 



The most important work on algfe which has appeared during the 

 year is Florideernes Morpliologi by Agardh. This is a large quarto with 

 33 colored plates, and was originally presented at the Swedish Royal 

 Academy of Science in 1877, and bears the date of publication 1870, but 

 was not received in this country until 1880. The work is in Swedish, 

 and embodies the author's views with regard to the structure of the 

 frond and fruit of the red-seaweeds. The text has been translated into 

 a Latin form, and under the title of MorphoJogia Floridearum has been 

 issued as an octavo with plates forming part iii of the third volume of 

 the Species Genera et Ordines Algarnm. Areschoug, in the Bot. Kotiser, 

 founds a new genus Oxyglossum on Laminaria japonicu, a species for- 

 merly included in L. saceharina. Ivjellman, in Bot. Tidsk, gives an ac- 

 count of Icelandic algtB, and remarks that the alga flora of Iceland more 

 closely resembles that of IS^orthern Scandinavia than that of Spitzber- 

 gen and Greenland. Kuntze, in Engier's Jahrbiicher, and also in Mature, 

 gives some observations on the distribution of the gulf-weed, and ex- 

 pres^^es doubts as to the existence of a genuine sargasso-sea, as de- 

 scribed by Huniboldc ana others. He also gives a revision of the ge- 



