1886. ] BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 39 
BRIEFER ARTICLES. 
Anemonella thalictroides Spach, Hist. Nat. Veg. vii. 289.—We adopt 
this genus and Spach’s name for it, The little plant has given much trouble, , 
having the leaves of a Thalictrum, except that the cauline are whorled-invo- 
lucrate, the only point in which it really accords with Anemone, while the 
terminal depressed-sessile stigma is foreign to both these genera. Spach is the 
first to characterize the genus, though even he did not rightly describe the 
stigmas; and his name is excellent. Much earlier than this, F, Hofmeister, in 
the Regensburg Flora, gives the names Syndesmon thalictroides and Syndesmon 
tuberosum as imposed by Count Hofmannsegg, but no character is indicated, 
and the two plants are not of the same genus. ‘The latter species is one of a 
group of Asiatic and European species of Thalictrum (? CoroLiina of Bois- 
but all have the unilateral stigma of Thalictrum. This is as true of Y, ori- 
entale Boiss., as of the rest, which this author well describes as with “ stigmate 
oblongo bade, but Lecoyer incorrectly as with ‘ stigmate minutissimo,” probably 
from the fruit. We await the concluding part of Lecoyer’s monograph of 
Thalictrum, which should give some needed explanations. The first part is in 
Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belg. xxiv, 1885. On page 223 it describes T. anemonoides 
as with “ stigmate minutissimo punctiformi,” which applies only to the remains of 
this organ upon the fruit; oe the next page comes nearer to the mark with 
stigmate ordinairement sessile, nia pebies dispose presque horizontalement au sommet 
de ovate Then it is large and bro 
may note that the specimen which M. Lecoyer describes at the close of 
his account of the above species, “dont les charactéres a ne concordant 
pas,” no doubt belongs to Isopyrum biternatum.—A. GRA 
Edmond Boissier.—M. de Candolle has just igs a as 
sketch of this distinguished botanist, who died the 25th of last September, at 
his country residence in Switzerland. Dr. Gray has also given a brief outline 
of his life and work in the Am. Journal of Science for January. Both of these 
gentlemen knew Boissier personally, and none could be more competent to 
speak of him. He was born in Geneva the 10th of May, 1810, of a family 
from whom he inherited an independent fortune. Instead of peetigie his life 
to luxurious idleness, he determined to enter upon some profession, and being 
in Geneva, with the De Candolles, it was but natural that his Whales should fall 
upon botany. His attention was directed entirely to systematic work, chiefly 
in the region of the Mediterranean and the East. In 1837 he collected in 
Spain, and between 1839 and 1845 he published his Voyage Botanique dans le 
midi de V Espagne, two quarto volumes, containing 180 plates. In 1842 he trav- 
eled with his wife in Greece, Syria and Egypt. In 1849, while traveling in 
Spain, he lost his wife from typhoid fever, and the rest of his life was spent in 
the shadow of this sorrow and afflicted by his own bodily ailments. Between 
1842 and 1855 appeared his Diaynoses Plantarum Orientalium Novarum. In 1 
Was completed his monograph of Plumbaginacee, while in 1862 appeared his 
8reat monograph of the genus Euphorbia, published in De Candolle’s Prodro- 
