iSgi] Notes and News. 35 



A Canadian Botanists' Correspondence association was formed in 

 December last, composed of botanists who collect and preserve speci- 

 mens of the Canadian flora, and who are willing to afford information 

 and assistance to others in the study of botany. A variety of other 

 good objects is set forth in their constitution, and the whole movement 

 deserves hearty support and encouragement. The officers who con- 



J 



John 



At the Leeds meeting of the British Association, the subject of 

 teaching botany in the schools was discussed. Professor Marshall 

 Ward introduced it, and in the discussion that followed it was evident 

 that British botanists are becoming aroused to the attitude that their 

 American brethren have held for many a long day. They agreed 

 " that it is time to leave the blind worship of facts, and instead of 

 measuring a scholar's progress by the amount of dogmatic information 

 imbibed and put into an examination paper, to look to his understand- 

 ing of the relation between facts and the intelligence with which he 

 describes what he sees," We had imagined that any sentiment con- 

 trary to this had gone out with the coming in of laboratory methods. 



Vincent Chmielewsky has reexamined the behavior of Spirogyra in 

 conjugation, and particularly the changes in the formation and growth 

 of the zygospore. He finds that the protoplasm of the male cell acts 

 only as a vehicle for the transportation of the nucleus, the essence of 

 the act of fertilization being the union of the male and female nuclei. 

 The chlorophyll band or bands, pyrenoids, etc., instead of uniting 

 with the corresponding structures of the female cell, as has been be- 

 lieved, become disorganized. Traces of these disorganized parts 



remain in the zygospore even till germination. Only the persistent 

 structures of the female cell enter the tube which is formed on the 

 germination of the zygospore. These observations, while differing 

 very materially from those of other observers, coincide more closely 

 with what we know of fertilization in other plants. 



In the last Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club (Dec.) Dr. N. L. 

 Britton presents his third contribution entitled, "New or Noteworthy 

 N. Am. Phanerogams." Ranunculus Porteri is a new species from 

 Henry's Fork, collected some years ago by the Hayden survey. The 

 somewhat unsatisfactory label reads very much as though the plant 

 had been collected in 1872, when J. M. Coulter was the collector. 

 Capsella divaricata Walp. is thought to be identical with the Old World 

 C procumbens L.; it is suggested that Hypericum Canadense L., var. 

 ma jus Gray is worthy of specific rank; Calandrinia py gmcea Gray is made 

 C. Grayi Britt. on account of an earlier Australian species bearing the 

 former specific name; Lotus Helleri is a new species disentangled from 

 L, American us Bisch. [Hosackia Purshiana Benth.); Spirsea Virginiana 

 is a new species from W. Va. ; and a new Cyperus from Key West is 

 described. 



The proceedings of the eleventh meeting of the Society for the 

 Promotion of Agricultural Science, held last August in Indianapolis, 

 have been distributed. The most notable botanical article in the vol- 

 ume is the index to the common names of grasses, compiled by Prof. 



