116 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 
possessed by the seed of Stipa spartea.” The fact is well known that the seeds of 
tea are driven sae Ne soil by means of a very sharp point and the power 
of hydroscopic movement possessed by the long bent and twisted awn. It also 
ars that mania especially woolly animals, sometimes have their skins 
penetrated by these same seeds, but there is no evidence that they are directly 
a cause of death. Mr. Christy was of the opinion that this was a device to se- 
cure the dispersion of this seed (one of the “buffalo grasses”) by means of the 
buffalo. But the opinion seemed to prevail in the Society that it was simply @ 
contrivance for penetrating the ground, which is the common view in regard to 
it in this country. 
THERE HAS NEVER been greater activity pe the study of bacteria than at the 
present time. Among notable works lately issued are Les organismes vivants de 
Vatmosphére, by Miquel, Bacteria, by Magnin ae Sternberg, both by authoritive 
bacteriologists, and the life of Pasteur, giving the methods of the great leader, 
of which an English translation will soon be issued by the Appletons. Among — 
the recent announcements are the detection of the bacteria of yellow fever, by 
Dr. Domingos Freire, of Rio de Janeiro; the communication to the 
Academy by M. Pasteur, that he is able to inoculate dogs and render them 
under Koch has yet failed to do, the transmission of cholera to the lower ani- 
mals by Dr. Vincent Richards, of Calcutta, who experimented with pigs; am 
the discovery that flowing water retards bacterial development, by Dr. Pehl, of 
St. Petersburg. 
NEW WORK on British Pil tea (mushrooms, toadstools, ete.) is to 
be es hed as soon as the st n list will warrant the expense. Who-. 
ever has attempted the collection ed naming of these plants has met with the 
great need of fuller and more exact descriptions, a need the present work is 
intended to supply. It is to embody translations from Fries’ Monographia, # 
work so rare as to be practically inaccessible, as well as from the Hymen 
Europei, the Epicricis, and the Icones of the same author. The rare classical 
scholarship of the eminent mycologist who has undertaken the work, the Rev. 
