196 Bibliography. 



p. 



/. 



C. vulgivaga, 



Prof. Choisy accords with Dr. Engelmann in retaining the name of C. 

 Americana for the West Indian species. He also points out, and em- 

 ploys as an important distinctive character, the two states which the mar- 

 cescent corolla assumes during the growth of the fructified ovary ; either 

 remaining persistent at its base, or elevated with it and covering its sum- 

 mit like a hood ; — circumstances which have not escaped Dr. Engelmann's 

 notice. According to the former, the entire capsule separates from the 

 receptacle and falls to the ground unopened in the greater part of the 

 genus ; as Dr. Engelmann had remarked for the North American species. 

 Prof. Choisy does not seem to have sufficiently regarded the characters 

 upon which Dr. Engelmann founds his genus Lepidanche ; but, as the 

 sepals are nearly if not quite distinct in several species, and the flowers 

 are often more or less bracteate, we suspect that this imbrication of bracts 

 and sepals will not warrant the dismemberment of such a natural genus 

 as Cuscuta. The other species described by Dr. Engelmann do not ap- 

 pear to have fallen under Prof. Choisy's observation. This author states 

 that, so far as known, Cuscuta are only parasitic on Dicotyledons, with 

 the exception of a single instance, noticed by De Candolle, in which C. 

 minor was found upon a grass : but Mr. Carey has detected the C. Gro- 

 novii on a species of Leersia. These parasites are most frequently found 

 attached to Composite and Leguminosce, perhaps because these are the 

 largest and most widely diffused Exogenous families; but they avoid all 

 plants which have acrid juices, such as Ranunculacea and Umbettifera. 



14. Spring, Monographie de la Famille des Lycopodiacees ; premiere 

 partie, 1841, (in Nouveaux Memoir es de V Academic Roy ale des Sciences et 

 Belles-lettres de Bruxelles, torn, xv, 1842,) pp. 110.— Prof. Spring, of the 

 University of Liege, has been for several years occupied with the Lycopo- 

 diacea, and published in 1838, a Beitrage zur Kentniss der Lycopodien 

 in the Flora oder Botanische Zeitnng of Ratisbon, which was repro- 

 duced in the Annates des Sciences Naturelles for 1839. He has also re- 

 cently elaborated the Lycopodiacca of Martius and Endlicher's Flora 

 Brasiliensis ; a work which we hope to notice at large in a future number 

 ot this Journal. This systematic monograph, so far as published, com- 

 prises the genus Lycopodium, as restricted by this author ; who consti- 

 tutes of JL. rvpestre, L. apodum and their allies, a distinct genus, with 



the name of Selaginclla, and distinguishes the four genera of the order 

 as follows : 



1. Lycopodium. Antheridia unilocularia. Oophoridia nulla. 



2. Selaginella. Antheridia unilocularia. Oophoridia 3-4-cocca. 



3. Tmesipteris. Antheridia bilocularia. Oophoridia nulla. 



4. Psilotum. Antheridia trilocularia. Oophoridia nulla. 



