454 Chronicles of Science. | July, 
Dr. Asa Gray, in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural 
Sciences of Philadelphia, gives a synopsis of the genus Hosackia ; and 
describes twenty-eight species, almost all of which occur in Califor- 
nia. The genus belongs to the Natural Order Leguminose, and the 
tribe Trifoliez. 
Dr. Asa Gray is satisfied that the two genera, Astragalus and Phaca, 
must be united, and that the genus Phaca must be merged in As- 
tragalus. It is in the Botany of America that the distinction between 
Phaca and Astragalus is most pressing, and where the data for the 
answer are most largely to be found. While extra-tropical Asia is 
the focus of true Astragalus, that of Phaca is in America, mainly in 
North America, with an extension along the Andes into South 
America. While the Flora of the Russian Empire enumerates 168 
species of Astragalus (of which more than nine-tenths are bilocellate 
or nearly so), and only six species of Phaca, Dr. Gray recegnizes 66 
species of the Phaca series, and 52 of Astragalus proper in America. 
Moreover, rather less than half of the latter are completely bilocellate 
by a dorsal septum, and at least half-a-dozen different groups have 
been or might be referred to Phaca. Dr. Asa Gray concludes that 
Phaca must be merged in Astragalus; and that since in perhaps the 
majority of Phacv, there is no intrusion nor peculiar tumidity of the 
seminiferous suture, the subtribe Astragaleze of De Candolle has no 
valid foundation, so that Astragalus is merely a genus of the Galegee. 
The question is also considered by Dr. Gray, whether Oxytropis should 
be kept a distinct genus. It is characterized by having along with the 
legume of Phaca, 7. e. with the ventral suture septiferous, a beak-like 
acumination or cusp at the apex of the carina of the corolla, whence 
the generic name. Gray thinks that Oxytropis may still be kept up as 
a genus on the ground of general convenience, although the pointed 
keel has been detected in at least one species of true Astragalus 
(A. Nothoxys). He gives a complete revision and arrangement 
(mainly by the fruit) of the North American species of Astragalus or 
Oxytropis in a paper read to the American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences. 
Hermann Hoffman, Professor of Botany at Giessen, has published 
a very useful ‘Index Fungorum. The names of all known Fungi 
and synonyms are given, with references to the works in which the 
plants are described. 
From a paper by A. J. Malmoren, translated in Seemann’s ‘ Journal 
of Botany,’ it appears that the Phanerogamic Flora of Spitzbergen 
contains 95 species of plants. 
Dr. F. W. Lewis, in the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences 
of Philadelphia, bas described some new species of Diatomacee. 
The gathering was made on the margin of a shallow pond, situated in 
the Notch Valley (White Mountains), from the southern end of which 
the river Saco takes its rise. The pond is about 200 feet long, and it 
is supplied by springs welling up from beneath the alluvial detritus 
forming the pond bottom, which overlies a stratum of clay, beneath 
