NOTES AND NEWS. 
Mr. R. BENTLEY, emeritus professor of botany in King’s College, 
London, died December 24, 1893 : 
Mr. JouN DonneELt Smitu sailed February roth for another visitto 
Central America, whose flora he is so energetically investigating. ! 
Dr. Ricnarp Spruce, the well-known English traveler, collector 
and hepaticologist, died at his home at Coneysthorpe on the 28th of / 
December, at the age of seventy-six. | 
Mr. G. H. Hicks, instructor in botany in the Michigan Agricultural — 
College, has been appointed assistant botanist in the Division of Bot 
any of the Department of Agriculture. ‘ 
Mr. ALBERT F. Woops, assistant in botany in the University of ; 
Nebraska, has been appointed assistant pathologist in the Division — 
of Vegetable Pathology of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. 
N THE ABSENCE of Prof. V. M. Spalding from the University 0 
Michigan for a year’s study in Germany, Mr. F. C. Newcombe, ie 
returned from Europe last summer, has been placed in charge of the 
instruction in botany. d 
_ Dr. E. Bonavia has been trying to identify the plants of the Assyt 
ian monuments. In some cases the identification seems to be sure 
enough; in others the representations are so conventional as to gre 
_ rise to large diversity of opinion 
Notice has been received of the death of Rev. Samuel Lockwood 
Ph. D., of Freehold, N. J., which occurred January I 3th. Pro ae 
Lockwood was an ardent naturalist and a very ready writer. He. 
butions to its earlier volumes. 
OF THE ANNUAL REPORTS of experiment stations for 1892 tet : 
especially interesting for their botanical matter: Vermont and pie 
ersey. e former contains fifty-five pages on plant diseases, by B 
R. Jones, and the latter 112 pages on plant diseases and weeds, DY ® 
D. Halsted. Both reports are well illustrated. ‘oll 4 
HEDWIGIA appears in an enlarged and somewhat altered lates 
Each bi-monthly part is to consist of 64-80 pages, with 2-3 ts of | 
The original articles are to be paged separately from the abstrac™ 
cryptogamic literature, and will occupy from 16-32 pages- oe 
is increased from eight to twelve marks. 
It sEEMs that the “Russian thistle” (S2/sola Kali var. T) agus), wo 
has proved so destructive in South Dakota is threatening N te? : 
over Nebraska. Bulletin 31, of the Agric. Exp. Station of evra 
prepared by Dr. Bessey, deals with the subject, giving 4? oe for i 
the structure of the plant and suggestions as to co-operation © 
eradication. 
