82 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. a 
pe errirtnieetiecrtemepnnemeanientis 
Is MUCH need for more common names for injurious fungi, and a 
more accurate use of those we now have, so that the terms “mould,” “mildew” 
and “blight,” shall not be made to do duty for scores of fungi more diverse in 
their affinities than oaks, oranges, and pumpkins. 
In THE Posrau Crus Boxes of the Am. Monthly Micr. Jour., we note that 
one contains a slide said to represent “Eleters and spores of Asterella remis- | 
pherica,” whereupon the editor suggests that it would be better to explain what 
“eleters ” are, in which suggestion botanists will heartily concur. i 
WE note in the April Gardener’s Monthly the announcement of the death 
of Prof. S. B. Buckley, which occurred at his home in Austin, Texas, February 
18. His name is very closely connected with Texas botany, and Buckleya dis- . 
_tichophylla, Torr., is a memorial of his work in the mountains of North Carolina. 
In Science, April 4, there is given a capital biographical sketch, with por- 
trait, of Dr. Engelmann. It tells the story so exactly as the GAZETTE would 
| like to have it told, that we refer our readers to it, and in place of a biographi- 
* eal sketch publish in this number a list of Dr. Engelmann’s botanical papers. 
Parpatopsis Inmiscur® Kiihn, the representative of a new genus of smuts 
inhabiting the flowers of Primula officinalis and P. elatior, which was described 
by the discoverer in Irmischia for May, 1882, is thought by. Winter (Hedwigu, 
Jan., 1884) to be the conidial condition of a Urocystis. He hopes to decide the 
question by means of cultures during the coming season. 
In THE Edinburgh Medical Journal for March there is a very interesting 
sketch of the late Prof. J. H. Balfour. He was born in Edinburgh in 1808, 
and for thirty-four years filled the chair of botany in the University of Edin- 
burg. It is said that nearly 8,000 students have been under his tuition, many — 
of whom are scattered over the globe occupying important scientific positions: — 
A CURIOUS INSTANCE of the inconvenience arising from the diversity of lan- _ 
guage spoken by botanists in different parts of the world, occurs in the Febru- — 
ary number of Hedwigia. Prof, Saceardo, wishing to notice the criticisms 
r 
to that journal. Thus an Italian, in order to publicly communicate with 20 
Englishman, clothes his thoughts in the French language, and makes them 
known through the medium of a German periodical. And yet there are some 
among us who think it unnecessary to be familiar with any but the mother 
tongue! 
Iv Is DOUBTLEss not generally appreciated that the association of barberry 
bushes with wheat rust is no new thing, even in our own country. Massachu- 
setts in 1755 passed an “ act to prevent damage to English grain arising from 
