BOTANY. 495 



Extension of the Black Walnut," "Still another Tumble-weed {Cyclo- 

 doma platyphylhim),'''' nud the "Grass Flora of the Nebraska Plains." 

 Also a uote on "An Overlooked Function of Many Fruits." He thinks 

 that the "greening" of young fruits, such as those of Ulmus, Negundo, 

 etc., is to aid in the development of the embryo, since at the time when 

 it is forming there are no leaves. The American Naturalist has also a 

 long paper on "Evolution in The Plant Kingdom," by Coulter, and a 

 note by Ed. Palmer on "The Eflect on Vegetation of the Variable Rain- 

 fall of Northwest Mexico." Sturtevant has continued his notes on the 

 " Origin of Garden Vegetables." 



Parry (Bull. Cal. Acad. Sci., ii) has a valuable paper on the California 

 Meuzanetas, "A partial revision of the Uva-urse section of the genus 

 Arctoetaphylos," as represented on the North American Pacific coast. 

 He enumerated thirteen species, of which one is extra limital, and sev- 

 eral are either new or newly characterized. Curran {op. cit.) has a note 

 on the "Priority of Dr. Kellogg's Genus Marah over Megarrhiza." 



Pittonia is the name of a botanical publication that has been begun 

 by Edward Lee Green, ot the University of California. It consists of 

 a series of papers, usually short, devoted mainly to Western plants, 

 descriptions of new species, critical notes, etc. Following is a list of 

 the most important articles: No. 1, "Some West American species 

 of Trifolium ; " " Some West American Asperifolese ; " " The species of 

 Zauscheria ; " "A New Genus of Asteroid Compositic {Hazzardia) j " 

 "New Species, mainly California." No. 2, "A Curious Collinsia;" 

 "Some West American Asperifolea;, ii;" "Miscellaneous Species, 

 New or Rare ; " "A Botanical Excursion to the Island of San Miguel ; " 

 " Catalogue of the Flowering Plants of the Island of San Miguel." No. 

 3, " West American Phases of the Genus Polentilla ; " " Some Ameri- 

 can Polemoniacefe ; " " New or Noteworthy Species;" " Echiuocystis 

 § Megarrhiza ; " " Biographical Notice of Dr. Albert Kellogg." No. 4, 

 "New Species from Mexico;" "New or Noteworthy Species, ii;" 

 "Botanical Literature, Old and New ; " " The Botany of Cedros Island ; " 

 " List of Cedros Island Plants;" " On Some Species of Dodecathion." 



The shorter foreign papers have also been exceedingly numerous, 

 but only a few of them can be mentioned: Baker's "Synopsis of Til- 

 audsi.e " was continued into 1888, and completed in the June number of 

 the Jonrn. Bot. Two hundred and forty-one species are enumerated, 

 a. large proportion of which are new to science. Dietz (Abhandl. Na- 

 turwiss. Ver., Bremen, ix) has investigated Sparganium and Typha, and 

 concludes that that they should be placed under distinct families; 

 Sparyanium having nearest aflinities to the Pandanacew and Ty2)ha to 

 the Aroidew. Hooker has described, under the name of EydrofhrLv, a 

 remarkable new genus of Fontederiaeew (Ann. Bot., i). Ridley (Journ. 

 Linn. Soc, Loud., xxiv) describes a new genus of Orchidaccw from the 

 Island of St. Thomas, West Africa. Ward's article on "Fruits and 

 Seeds of Bhamnus (Ann, Bot., i) is devoted to an investigation of the 



