1887. | BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 115 
hundred. The second (and larger) series will omit only the ubiquitous 
tropical species, especially those of the sea coast, and will cost thirty marks 
per hundred. e determinations will be elaborated by the undersigned, 
assisted by various monographers. He will be pleased to receive sub- 
scriptions to either series, but without prepayment. In view of the diffi- 
culties of transportation in the island, only a limited number of sets will 
ted; and a prompt notification is requested from those who wish 
to subscribe. R. Ian. URBAN. 
Friedenau bei Berlin, Germany. 
A new lichen. 
_ In 1886 I found a peculiar lichen on rocks in Catawba River. I sent 
it to Dr. J. W. Eckfeldt, of Philadelphia, and he to Mr. H. Willey, of ks 
i 1 
better plants than he had seen, and he says it is not an Opegrapha, and 
has named it Buellia Catawbensis, n. sp i 
tion: Thallus thickish, squamulose, peltate, orbicular, about { inch in 
diameter (I should say from } to 2), sub-entire, white, beneath black and 
ecia innate-superficial, the disk even with the thallus, black, 
at length crowded and confluent in the center of the thallus: hypothe- 
cium black, the proper exciple deficient: paraphyses distinct, agglutinate: 
spores oblong-ellipsoid, 2-loc., brown, .015-15 mm. by .007-8 mm.—On 
rocks along Catawba River Landsford, 8. C., Prof. H. A. 8 
singular plant without near affinity. Taken from “ Introduction to the 
geet of apa by H. Willey 7 ALS 
er, 8. C. 
CURRENT LITERATURE. 
Physiological Botany: An abridgement of the student’s guide to structural, 
morphological and physiological botany, by Robert Bentley, F. L. S. 
Prepared as a sequel to “ Descriptive Botany,” by Eliza A. ‘Youmans. 
pp. Xiv, 292. eton & Co. 1886. 
If any single term is to be used for this book, it should be structural 
rather than physiological botany, for it deals mostly with anatomy, less 
than one-third being devoted to physiology. We can not see that it is 
properly a sequel to Miss Youmans’ “ Descriptive Botany,” for, with the 
exception of the impracticable “ popular flora” of that work, this one 
covers much the same ground. It is a book of the old style, a compen- 
dious mass of facts, essential and trivial, about structure and function, 
ence than as a text book. Viewed in that light, it has not been improved 
by abridgment. It is of the “old style,” in that it has no open questions. 
Its dictum, ex cathedra alike on fact and hypothesis, leaves the student no 
reason to doubt that all questions are forever settled. ; 
__ With the structural part we have little fault to find, except with the 
illustrations, which are very uneven in quality; a few good, the majority 
only tolerable, and some very poor. The statements are in the main 
2 
