^902] CURRENT LITERATURE 69 



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4 



MINOR NOTICES. 



Miss Clara E. Cummings has published a list of Labrador lichens 

 collected by Professor E. B. Delabarre on the Atlantic coast of Labrador 

 during 1900. The list is a reprint from Bull. Geog. Soc. Phil. 3 : no. 4, and 

 contains 43 species.— J. M. C. 



The experiment farm of the Horticultural Society of North Carolina 

 has published an attractive pamphlet calling attention to the many valuable 

 qualities of the "cow pea " {Vigna sinensis'). It is a full synopsis of the his- 

 tory, habits, and merits of the plant.— J. M. C. 



It is very fitting that Dr. Robert Hartig^ just before his death should 

 have brought together a summary of his publications. The first 52 pages of 

 the work is taken up in brief reviews of his 38 papers. In the remaining 

 portion of the volume the author gives the results of his last work on the 

 influence of gravity, pressure, and pull on the form of the fir and the structure 

 f of its wood. — H. N. Whitford. 



V. KoMARov has just published^ the first volume of a Flora of Manchu- 

 ria, mcludmg the vascular plants. All of the notes and descriptive text are 

 m Russian, and the Engler sequence is followed, the volume completing the 

 monocotyledons. The pteridophytes are represented by 74 species, the 

 smgle new one being a Nephrodium ; the gymnosperms comprise 29 species, 

 Piniis funebris and Abies gracilis being new ; while the list of monocotyle- 

 dons numbers 461, new species being described in Scirpus, Carex (2), and 

 Lilium. Of the monocotyledons, 86 are grasses and 122 sedges, Carex con- 

 taining 83 species.— J. M. C. 



Wulffs has made some recent contributions to the knowledge of arctic 

 plant ecology. The first paper treats of the transpiration of arctic plants. 

 By means of the cobalt paper method the relative transpiration activity of 

 some ten species, each under sixteen different climatic conditions, were 

 oetermined. The main conclusions are as follows: daily variation in tran- 

 spiration is absent ; as compared with temperate plants the transpiration is 

 uniformly weak ; there is a frequent falling off of transpiration in relatively 

 high temperatures and low humidity. A second paper treats of the occur- 

 rence of anthocyan in arctic plants. The distribution of coloring matter is 

 carefully noted in fifty species. Dried specimens were examined and found 

 to contain abundant sugar and little starch. This is in accord with the experi- 

 ents of Miyake and others, who found cold conducive to the production of 



m 



^Hartig, Robert, flolzuntersuchungen. Altes und Neues. vi + 99, with 52 

 text figures. Berlin: Springer. 1901. 



^ Acta Horti Petropolitani 20 : 1-559. 1901. 



^WuLFF, Thorild, Botanische Beobachtungen aus Spitzbergen. pp. iii + l^S. 

 with 4 plates. E. Malmstrom. 1902, 



