108 ERYTHEA. 
Tue literature of the beautiful genus Yucca has lately 
been increased by another very valuable paper prepared by 
Professor Trelease and issued as a part (in advance) of the 
Fourth Annual Report of the Missouri Botanical Garden. 
There are 47 pages of letter press, and 23 plates. Four of 
the plates are devoted to our Mohave Desert species, Y. 
brevifolia, and are admirable representations of this interest- 
ing tree as it appears in its native soil, with its background 
of desert scenery. Last year the author journeyed far and 
wide through our yucca districts, and this paper is rich in 
records of personal observation and investigation in the field. 
Mr. Frederic VY. CoviILue, we are glad to learn, has suc- 
ceeded to the place made vacant by the death of Dr. Vasey. 
The headship of the Botanical Division of the Agricultural 
Department at Washington is fast growing to be an office 
of much responsibility, and of great usefulness to American 
botany; and the new appointment is a most happy one, in as 
much as Mr. Coville is a young man of excellent attainments, 
clear of head, full of zeal and energy, and quite abreast of 
the times in all matters relating to the advancement of 
botanical science. He will have received many congratu- 
lations from friends near home; but none more cordial than 
ours which come from the Pacific States. 
ENGLISH botanists are still at outs over the composition of 
the English blackberry patch. Twenty years ago a contri- 
butor to the London Journal of Botany protested at length 
against the proposal of more new species; but a recent writer 
in the same journal considers that there are still English 
brambles unnamed and describes two new species in the 
January number. The February issue contains the conclu- 
sion of a series of articles devoted to a revision of British 
rubi. The author, W. M. Rogers, recognizes ninety species, 
many of which are avowedly “aggregates” of numerous 
closely related forms. Bentham and Hooker (Handbook 
British F'l. 5 ed. 1887) recognize just five species; Babington 
(Manual, 8th ed.) describes forty-five. 
