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of which has just been published in the report of the California Geological 

 Survey, gives a most important and long-needed account of the vegetation 

 of the Pacific coast, so different in many respects from that of the eastern 

 part of the continent. The Gamopetalae are by Gray, and the Polypetalae 

 by Watson and Brewer. Up to this time we have had ho connected his- 

 tory of the Flora of the whole United States. The classical Flora of Torrey 

 and Gray, published nearly forty years ago, but never completed, remained 

 far behind the progress of the science. Later work has been scattered in 

 numerous isolated jonrnals or other publications — often difficult of access. 

 Botanists, therefore, hail with delight the announcement that Prof. Gray 

 has now passing through the press his Synopsis of the Flora of N. A. It 

 is eagerly looked for both at home and abroad. Many other laborers in 

 this field have, during the year, contributed their share, and the papers 

 presented by Mr. Meehan to the Philadelphia Academy of Science are 

 particularly noteworthy. Mr. Meehan is conservative, and does excellent 

 work. An ardent observer, he seems to delight in the discovery of excep- 

 tional facts that seem opposed to the general observations and conclusions 

 of some of the leading workers in botany, and from this tendency not 

 unfrequently attaches too much importance to such exceptional facts, but 

 even misconstrues the real facts. In recent papers on the " Fertilization 

 of Flowers by Insect Agency," he has insisted on the scarcity of insects in 

 the Rocky Mountains, and the non-scarcity of seed in the colored flowering 

 plants there. In truth, however, as I know from my own experience and that 

 of others, no region is richer in pollinigerous and pollinizing species, — the 

 Hymenoptera, and the Mordellidse and the Meloidse in Coleoptera, being 

 exceedingly abundant, and the Diptera also abounding, especially the more 

 hirsute Tachinidie, that are particularly well adapted to carry pollen. Our 

 honored member, Dr. Engelmann, has given us an exhaustive paper on 

 the interesting Agaves, naming one of the most elegant s'pecies after our 

 esteemed fellow-citizen, Mr. Henry Shaw; also a preliminary study of the 

 difficult American Oaks, which is a most valuable and highly appreciated 

 contribution to the classification of the genus. 



Few who have not done similar work appreciate the amount of labor and 

 close application in the closet which such a philosophical resum^ implies, 

 of a subject that has before been treated of at so many hands ; and it is 

 interesting to note that in this, as in all other monographic work where 

 large experience is brought to bear, the tendency is to greatly reduce the 

 number of previously accepted species, and thus add weight to the assump- 

 tion of evolutiojilsts, that species have a conventional rather than a real 

 existence in nature. 



In cryptogamic Botany, the articles by Prof. W. G. Farlow in the Bul- 

 letin of the Bussey Institution are noteworthy. The work of the micro- 

 scopist to the department of Agriculture in this line has often been 

 open to criticism; and, after the fungus caricatures and unimpressive 

 dissertations that have on some occasions appeared in the pages of the 

 reports from said Department, it is refreshing to read Prof. Farlow's papers 

 on Black Knot, Grapevine Mildew, and other destructive funguses. 



