52 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 
ALL OUR HERBARIA contain specimens from Mr. A. H. Curtiss, and we do . 
not need to call attention to their yalue as species, nor their completeness of 
preparation. The successive fascicles, now numbering seven, have each brought 
many accessions eagerly sought for by botanists, This season Mr. Curtiss will 
collect such plants of North Florida as are ordered, and will send lists to pur- 
chasers for selection. He can be addressed at J acksonville, Florida. 
BREFELD Devores the fifth part of his Botanische Untersuchungen to the de- 
velopment of the Ustilaginew. By using nutritive fluids for his cultures he was en- 
abled to obtain far more important results than those of other observers. By 
this means he found that the sporidia produced by the germinating spores have 
the behavior of conidia, and that the so-called conjugation in Tilletia, which is 
without sexual significance, does not occur when nutriment is abundant. 
As WE Go to press the death of Dr. Geo. Engelmann is announced, and to 
western botanists especially it comes like the shock of a family bereavement. — 
So great and so kind, was the general thought in regard to him, and we ho 
soon to be able to give to our readers a suitable memorial notice. 
Pror. Epwarp S. Burasss, of the Washington High School, has published - 
a“ Syllabus of the Courses in Botany and Zoology,” which rather surprises one 
accustomed to the ordinary High School biology. Of course the means of 
illustration in Washington are unusually good, thanks to the Botanical Gar- 
dens and National Museum. But the main point is, that use seems to be made 
of the materials within reach, which would work a revolution in probably nine- 
tenths of our schools. But the Botanie Gardens and National Museum are by | 
no means the only things Prof. Burgess uses, but he depends largely upon what 
every teacher has, the inexhaustible Botanic Garden and Museum of Nature 
herself. One only needs Nature to teach pupils much natural science, but the — 
trouble is that much of our school natural science is so very unnatural. i 
CURRENT LITERATURE. 
Aretostaphylos, Adams, Notes on the U. 8. Pacific Coast species, from recent ob- 
servations of living plants, including a new species from Lower California. — 
By C.C. Parry. From proceedings Davenport Acad. Science, vol. iv. 
Some t ies of Arctostaphylos are recognized by botanists, thir- 
teen ef which are found within the limits of this paper. The only one of get- — 
eral distribution is the well-known A. Uva-ursi. Five speci e exclusively 
Californi hich Dr. Parry characterizes as doubtful, or imperfectly 
unders' od. Seven other species extend into Mexico, including the new species 
| Lerococe acte 
mealy pulp, wrinkled at maturity, and the four or five nutlets easily separating. — 
A, i i differs from all other members of the genus in its opposite or ter — 
nately-whorled leaves, and is noted for its two-celled nutlets. 
