22 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. [ Jan., 
and historically is mainly concerned with the growth of bacterial concepts 
from the time of Cohn’s Untersuchungen to DeBary’s Vorleswngen, 1872 to 
1886. A few words are given to the early history of the subject, begin- 
ning with Leeuwenhoek, the discoverer of bacteria (1675), after which 
the epoch-making classification of Cohn (1872) ushers in the discussion 
of the comparative value of natural-history species, form species and phy- 
siological species. 
The readiness with which certain bacteria pass from one form to 
another early attracted attention, and shook the belief in specific distinc- 
tions, raising the question, if various forms were not simply phenomena 
of growth, and if all bacteria should not be relegated to a single species or 
genus. The subsequent idea of monomorphic and pleomorphic forms 
led to expansion of the bacterial concept, and reinstated the idea of the 
existence of genuine species. Variability, the modifications due to change 
of function and of food supply, the significance of zodgleea, the several 
classes of growth-forms, and the formation and germination of spores, 
successively receive attention, followed by a classification of genera on 
the basis of fructification, and a discussion of the phylogenetic relation- 
ship of ia. 
Such in brief is the outline of the work. Only a consultation of the 
work itself, however, can adequately reveal the full yet careful handling 
which the subject has received. It is an excellent treatise, and will prove 
a welcome one to a wide circle of readers and students. 
r-——_—, 
NOTES AND NEWS. 
~ es CAROLINIANA Eng. is figured in Gardeners’ Chron idle, December 
Mr. Matsumura, professor of botany in the Imperial University of 
Japan, is a pupil of Dr. Sachs. 
_WE ARE ABLE to give, in the present number, a short account of Dr. 
Wigand as a botanist and teacher, from the pen of one of his pupils. 
R. T. J. W. Burcess has published in a quarto pamphlet of 10 pages 
(reprinted from Trans, Roy. Soc. Canada), recent additions to Canadian 
Filicinez, 
WORK on the “Fresh-water Alge of the United States,” by 
nips cg Wolle, is in press. It will contain 15C plates, with over 
fia oepe teens FUNGUS (Puccinis ballata), during this last autumn, has 
revalent in parts of England, i t ina 
market garden being prone off by <i Sha pia nandenne: 
Cas: E. Bessry describes (Am. Nat., Dec., 1886,) Psoralea tenui- 
flora as “another tumble-weed,” occupying « ite Sey tee ae f the 
perp si! in 8. Nebraska, in great om," cope dr ad 
R. Paut Mortuter, of Neuchatel, Switzerland. is d ad. He was the 
founder of the Swiss Botanical Society, and hsb. the toner’ fb i 
: : ein 
remembered in a familiar genus of fungi. ee ' 
