MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND NEWS. 107 
and consequent dense leafiness, giving it more the air of a 
Talinum than of the ordinary Tissa. 
Tissa valida. Perennial, with a perpendicular fleshy and 
somewhat fusiform and simple or branching root: stems 
stout, tufted, the outer members of the tuft decumbent at 
base, the others erect, 4 to 1 foot high, the internodes ltol} 
inches long; leaves rather fleshy and semi-terete, about 
equalling the internodes; stipules deltoid-ovate, acute, about 
tinch long: herbage altogether pale, and clammy-pubescent 
with short, spreading gland-tipped hairs; branches cymose 
and floriferous from below the middle: sepals oblong- 
lanceolate, rather exceeding the valves of the ovate capsule: 
seeds black and almost shining, mostly destitute of wing. 
Island of Santa Cruz, off Santa Barbara, California; 
collected by the author in 1886, and distributed rather freely 
as T. macrotheca, from which it is distinct. Tt has the pale 
herbage of T. pallida, on which account Dr. Britton tells 
me he referred it to that species. I have always thought it 
a new one; but have been loath to propose species in this 
intricate genus. But our insular forms are apparently less 
confluent than those of the mainland. 
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND NEWS. 
Grorcr Vasey, M. D., Botanist to the United States 
Department of Agriculture for the last twenty years, died in 
the City of Washington, on the 4th of last month, at the age 
of seventy-one years. 
Proressorn MacMiiuan’s elaborate catalogue of the vege- 
tation of the Minnesota Valley, 4 work of great interest, 
and long expected, reached us just too late for a full review 
in this issue of Eryruea. Will not the author give us the 
real date of issue of this important work? The “December 
29, 1892,” of the title is manifestly far from correct. 
