294 The Botanical Gazette, [October- 



species being described in the paper. Ten of them are iPustrated by 

 full page or large folded plates. A new genus of Leguminosae, Wil- 

 lardia, is proposed for a species that Dr. Watson referred doubtfully 

 to Coursetia, as C. Mexicana. To give any notion of the nearly half a 

 hundred new species is impossible in this brief review. The contri- 

 bution, however, is creditable to the Division, and the chief Botanist 

 deserves congratulation for the organization and promotion of this 

 kind of work. There are some blemishes in matters of detail and a 

 few marked inconsistencies between drawings and descriptions. 



Watson's Contributions. — Dr. Sereno Watson's " Contributions to 

 American Botany, xvm " is before us, appearing in Proceedings of 

 American Academy, xxvi, 124-163. Part 1 contains the description of 

 eight new species, chiefly from the United States, and a revision of the 

 American species of Erythronium. Thirteen species of Erythronium 

 are recognized, but one of which is new, although E. mesochoreum 

 Knerr may be considered as such. Part 2 contains the descriptions of 

 new Mexican species from the Pringle collections of 1889 and 1890. 

 Among the 88 new species there described, two new genera appear, 

 viz.: Neopringlea, to replace the preoccupied Llavea, a genus usually 

 placed with the Celastraceae, but whose affinities are shown to be in 

 the Sapindaceae; and Oligonema (now Golionema), a genus of homo- 

 chromous Asteroideae. Part 3 is concerned with a wild species of Zea 

 from Mexico, described under the name Z. canina. At first thought 

 to be the original wild state of our cultivated maize, Dr. Watson now 

 considers it a distinct species. Part 4 contains some notes upon a col- 

 lection of plants from the Island of Ascension, including three new 

 species, a Rubus, an Asplenium, and a Nephrodium. 



Supplementing the above is Mr. B. L. Robinson's u Contribution 

 from the Gray Herbarium," in the same volume of Proceedings of the 

 American Academy, pp. 164-176. It contains descriptions of new 

 plants from the Pringle collections of 1889 a ^d 1890, twenty-six species, 

 chiefly Gamopetalae, being established. 



Prof. F. Lamson-Scribner has just issued a paper (Proceedings of 

 Philadelphia Academy. 1891, 292-309) treating of the Mexican grasses 

 collected by Pringle in 1890, and also by an expedition in the same 

 year from the Philadelphia Academy. Pnngle's grasses number thirty- 

 six species, three of which (Muhlenbergia) are new, although a good 

 deal of synonymy is corrected. The paper contains a full page plate 

 and two cuts in the text. 



Mr. Thos. Morong has published notes on the North American 

 I : ilorageae which appear as a reprint from the Bulletin of the Torrey 

 Botanical Club. t8, 229-246. Hippuns is made to contain three species. 



