BOTANY, 495 



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

 doma platyphijllum),''- and the "Grass Flora of the Nebraska Plains." 

 Also a note 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 Efl'ect on Vegetation of the Variable Rain- 

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

 "Origin of Garden Vegetables." 



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

 Menzanetas, "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 uew 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 thai 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. Followrng is a list of 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 3, " West American Phases of the Genus l*olentilla ; " " Some Ameri- 

 can Polemoniaceie ; " " New or Noteworthy Species ; " " Echinocystis 

 § Megarrhiza ; " " Biograi)hical Notice of Dr, Albert Kellogg." No, 4, 

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

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

 " List of Cedros Island JMauts;" "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- 

 andsia^-" was continued into 188S, and completed in the June number of 

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

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

 turvviss, Ver., Bremen, ix) has investigated Spanfaniiim and Typha, and 

 concludes that that they should be placed under distinct families; 

 Himryanium having nearest affinities to the Fmidanacew and Typha to 

 the Aroidew. Hooker has described, under the name of Hydrofhrlx', a 

 remarkable new genus of Vontrderiacew (Ann. Bot., [). Ridley (Journ. 

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

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

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



