31 



Berberis FremontL — Sereiio Watson. (Garden and Forest, i., 



496, fig77-) 



Black Rot. {Lmstadia Bidwellii) F, Lamson Scribner and 

 Pierre Viala. (U. S. Dept. Agric, Botanical Division, Bull. 

 No. 7, pp. 29, Washington, 1888.) 



A report of observations made during 1887 on the ravages of 

 this pest of the grape ; portions of it have been already pub- 

 lished in French by Prof Viala, under the title '' Le Black Rot 

 in Amerique/' and to these are added the results of successful 

 experiments on the treatment of the disease during the past sea- 

 son. There is a very interesting chapter on the origin and his- 

 tory of the malady. The fungus causing it is native to East 

 America, and is found on most of the wild vines. Its oldest 

 specific name is iivicola, Berkeley and Curtis, who placed it in the 

 genus Phoma. Mr. EUis first described the perithecial stage as 

 Sph^ria Bidwellii. There have been a variety of other names 

 applied to it, and now Prof Scribner tells us that ''a minute 

 study of the perithecia, both in America and France, has caused 

 us to classify the fungus in the genus Lcsstadta. The only spe- 

 cific name which now ought to be given it is Lcsstadia Bidwellii,'' 

 Now we are quite willing that mycologists should decide whether 

 or no the name given the original imperfect form should stand, 

 but inasmuch as Kunth applied the generic name Lcestadia to a 

 genus of Andean Compositae as early as 1833, while as applied 

 by Auerswald to fungi it dates from only 1 869, we would submit 

 that the binomial accepted by Profs. Viala and Scribner cannot 

 stand under any circumstances. 



Botanic Garden for the City of New York. — C. S. Sargent (Gar- 

 den and Forest, i., 517, 518.) 



Professor Sargent ably states the advantages of a great botan- 

 ical garden to the city of New York and to botanical science, and 

 indicates the lines upon which such an establishment should be 

 administered, the elements available for its foundation, and the 

 needs of such an undertaking. 



Botany at the University of Gottingen. — W. E. Stone. (Bot. 

 Gazette, xiii., 287-294.) 



Botany for Academies and Colleges^ consisting of Plant Develop- 



