V8 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 
colleges or of *private individuals. With but few exceptions 
these are of such meagre proportions, and were selected with so 
little care, that they possess very little interest to the scientific 
student. Ina few cases they were selected to illustrate the forest 
trees, or the grasses, which they fairly represent ; but the wretched 
way in which they are shown, tacked to the walls, and entirely 
unprotectod from dust an injury from handling, detracts much. 
from the pleasure one might otherwise have felt in examining 
them. And the labeling! who can do justice to it? Spelling, 
capitalization, and accuracy of identification are equally disre- 
garded in some of the collections, even in some of those bearing 
college and university labels! f 
t is a pleasure to pass from the foregoing to what is without 
question the most interesting collection of herbarium specimens 
in the government building, viz., that of California—the work 
. of the well-known botanist J. G. Lemmon. A thousand or more 
finely prepared specimens are mounted upon bristol-board, and 
wood of nearly every tree growing within the limits of the 
United States. The Southern States have excelled in this, hav- 
ing sent great truncheons often of the dimensions of logs. The 
only drawback to these wood collections is that of defective, not 
to say illiterate labeling, which is far too common. ; 
e Department of Agriculture exhibits a large collection 
of colored drawings of the Fungi, the work of Dr. Thomas Tay- 
lor. While some of these are open to critigism, the collection as 
a whole is a very valuable one, and it is to be hoped that the de- 
partment will provide for their early publication, accompanie 
by appropriate text furnished by some one of our specialists 10 
the study of the Fungi. : . 
orticultural Hall is disappointing. There is not that variety 
of fruits which a Visitor from the north might expect. Still the 
genus Citrus is well] represented, and many a botanist from ae 
Northern States wil] find it very instructive to spend some time 
in studying the many variations in the species of this genus. a” 
collection of Cacti includes some striking plants, among whic 
