1889.] BOTANICAL GAYETTE. 89 



Prof. J as. Ellis Humphrey, of the Mass. Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, has been invited to act as collaborator on the Botcmisches Central- 

 blatt, the well-known weekly resume of current botanical literature. Dr. 

 Uhlworm, the editor, wishes to have the work of American botanists 

 more fully represented in his pages than heretofore, and Prof. Humphrey 

 will be glad to receive reprints of all future American papers containing 

 original matter, for abstract. 



Amanm finds that the whitish coating which gives the glaucous ap- 

 pearance to the leaves of Leptotrichum glaucescens is a cryslallizable sub- 

 stance which he calls "Leptotrichum-saure." This is the first crystal liz- 

 able substance yet obtained from mosses. It is soluble in ether and hot 

 alcohol, from which it may be recovered in crystals or a flocculent precip- 

 itate respectively. The crystals are tasteless and odorless. The small 

 quantity available has not yet permitted a complete chemical study of 

 the substance. 



The Agricultural Experiment Station at Knoxville, Tenn., has se- 

 cured the entire collection of Dr. A. Gattinger of Nashville. This collec- 

 tion is a very valuable one, the result of 30 years of work of an indefati- 

 guable and acute botanist. It is very nearly complete for that very inter- 

 esting state, and Dr. Gattinger's correspondence has also secured much 

 material from other parts of the United States. With Prof. Scribner in 

 charge of the botany of the station, this rich collection at once becomes 

 the common property of all working botanists. 



A writer in a late njimber of Education points out that the diction- 

 aries (Webster and Worcester) are wrong regarding the accent and 

 meaning of the word Arbutus. He quotes from Horace, Virgil and 

 Ovid to show that the accent should be on the first syllable, and from 

 Aristophanes and others for the meaning, which is having the properties 

 of the arbor or tree. It will be found that in the works of Asa Gray the 

 word is properly accented, while in Hooker's Flora of the British Isles, 

 and possibly other English works, the accent is on the second syllable. 



Another journal, the Revue gCmrale de Bdtanique, has been started 

 with the new year, designed to cover all departments of the science. Its 

 hst of editors includes such well known names as MM. Bonnier, Dufour, 

 Flahaulr, Costantin, Leclerc du Sablon and Saporta. It is a monthly of 

 36 to 48 pages, at 22.50 francs ($4.50) a year outside of France. Sub- 

 scriptions are to be sent to the publisher, M.Paul Klincksieck, 15 Rue 

 de Sevres, Paris, and communications and papers for review to M. G. 

 Bonnier, 7 Rue Amyot, Paris. The first number will be sent free to those 

 interested in botany making known their desire to see it. 



There has been recently patented in Germany by Dr. W. Koch and 

 Max Wolz a novel arrangement for transmitting light through glass rods 

 for the purpose of illuminating inaccessible parts of the body, such as the 

 larynx. The same principle has been applied to the illumination of ob- 

 jects on the stage of the microscope. It is well known that light imping- 

 ing upon the surface of glass at a less angle than 40°, suffers total reflec- 

 tion. The novel illuminating apparatus therefore consists of a hooded 

 lamp, with a glass rod curved properly extending from a hole in the 

 metal hood to the aperture in the stage. The light entering the end of 

 the rod suffers numerous total reflections, until it reaches the end, where 

 it emerges. The advantages for night work are sufficiently obvious and 

 the low price (M. 15) puts it within easy reach. The apparatus is manu- 

 factured by two firms in Bonn, Marquart (C. Gerhardt), and Max Wolz. 



