1887. | BOTANICAL GAZETTE, 97 
names, which you use as English plurals, it is simply a matter of taste 
and usage whether to use a capital or small initial. There is a strong 
THE GOVERNMENT appropriation for the fiscal year ending June 30, 
1888, to support the botanical part of the Department of Agriculture, is 
$15,440. Of this sum $9,400 goes to the Section of Plant Pathology (as the 
ion of Mycology is henceforth to be known), and $6,040 to the remain- 
der of the Division of Botany. The appropriation for the presen fiscal 
year was $8,200, inclusive of the mycological part, and for the preceding 
never exceeded the last figure. Those who know about the expen- 
diture of this money, know that good use is made of it, and feel gratified 
in order to check the author, whose statements are frequently not above 
criticism. One is prepared for this upon finding that the author acknowl- 
edges no help, and says that he has “never met with any person versed 
in mycology.” The source of the fifty-nine plates, forty-four of which 
have no connection with the text, is not divulged, but any one. familiar 
with the works of the more prominent mycological writers could guess 
closely. It seems probable that the publishers, a good firm, have been 
caught napping. 
Iy A RECENT meeting (Jan. 20) of the Linnean Society, Mr. J. R. 
A MEETING of the Linnean Society of London, January 20, 1887, a 
paper was read by Francis Darwin and A. Bateson upon “ The eflects of 
optimum, and suddenly falls as a temperature sufficient 9 
“ause fliccidity is reached ; (3) the following reagents cause distinct pi - 
®ration, viz., alcohol, ether, ammonia and hydrocyanic acid ; the first three 
