204 BULLETINS OF U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



tooth Violet," although the name goes back at least as far as 

 Gerard, and no other plant has borne it: "Adders-tongue" is 

 preferred, although that is also given (as is usual) to OpJuoijlossuw. 

 "Assiniboia Sedge," "Hair-grass Dropseed," " Scirpus-lilve Sedge," 

 "Large-tubercled Spike-rush," "Knieskern's Beaked Eush," are 

 samples of what are supposed to be " English names." 



A word must be said in praise of the typographical arrangement 

 and excellent printing. The paper, too, for those who do not dislike 

 a shiny surface, is very good, although somewhat heavy. 



We trust that this Flora will proceed apace to its completion, 

 and we cordially recommend it to those of our readers who are 

 interested in North American plants. 



James Britten. 



U. S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Agrostolor/i/. Bulletins 

 Nos. 4 & 5. Washington, 1897. 



The first of these publications is a pamphlet, of forty-three 

 pages, with five plates, and fifteen figures in the text, entitled 

 " Studies on American Grasses." The work is chiefly that of Mr. 

 Lamson-Scribner, the Government Agrostologist, and, being purely 

 of systematic interest, would have seemed hardly likely to commend 

 itself to a government department. It contains (1) a restoration 

 of Sehlechtendal's genus Lvophonia : (2) a list of the grasses collected 

 by Mr. Palmer near Acalpulco, Mexico, 1894-95, with the descrip- 

 tion of a new genus, Fourniera, of the tribe ZuysiecB : (3) a list of 

 grasses collected by E. W. Nelson in Mexico, 1894-95, with several 

 new species ; (4) results of the examination of some American 

 Panicums in the Berlin Herbarium and that of WiUdenow by Tlieo. 

 Holm ; (5) analytical keys to the species, and notes on the native 

 and introduced members of the genera Hordeum and Af/ropi/ron, 

 with the description of no less than nine new species and thirteen 

 new varieties in the latter genus ; (6) miscellaneous notes and 

 descriptions of new species. 



In papers 3, 5, and 6, Mr. Scribner is associated with Mr. 

 Jared G. Smith. There are fifteen figures in the text, and five 

 plates, none of which call for praise. If a thing is worth a plate, 

 it is surely worth the expenditure of sufficient trouble to make it 

 more than a rough sketch ; and this criticism might be extended to 

 other American publications. 



Future work must settle the value of the new species ; the 

 descriptions, at any rate, are fairly comprehensive. We must, 

 however, enter two protests. The first against the use of the tri- 

 nomial ; trinomials are, in fact, in some pages almost as frequent 

 as binomials. The second in reference to Mr. Scribner's new name 

 C/uEtochloa. This, if you please, is only the well-known genus 

 Setaria, which has become " untenable," first because "at an earlier 

 date the name was employed by Acharius to designate a genus of 

 lichens"; and, second, because it was first applied by its founder 

 Beauvois to a species of Pennisetum. With the help of Mr. Gepp 

 I have looked up the lichen point, and find that Acharius described 

 Setaria in Xoi'a Act. Ficy. Acad. Sc. Suec. xv. (1794), and repeated 



