84 The Botanical Gazette, [February, 3 
this cause, and became worthless. 
Tur BoranicaL Seminar of the University of Nebraska has under 
taken the publication of a “Flora of Nebraska,” in which the entire — 
flora of the state is to be described. The work will appear in twenty: — 
five parts, not more than three or four in any one year, and will cost 
one dollar a part. LIllustrations‘are to be freely used to illustrate the 
lower groups and the more difficult phanerogams. While the pros 
pectus is apparently addressed to students of botany in Nebraska It is 
of decided general interest, as it not only represents an effort unique 
in this country, but deals with one of those “middle regions” that have 
never had fair treatment at the hands of manuals. 
In tHE Journal of Botany (Jan.) Mr. F. N. Williams discusses the 
primary subdivisions in the genus Si/ene. He points out the “icon 
venience of regarding the mode of preefloration in the petals as 4 a 
‘mary character.” The primary divisions he bases on the structure © — 
the calyx, slightly modifying Rohrback’s arrangement, and follows 
Engler and Prantl in regarding each division as a subgenus, of which 
three are recognized. The delimitation of the genus by the c a 
of a unilocular capsule septate at the base transfers many of the North 
American species to the genus M/edandryum. 
rategus are also common. Questions as to the mechanism 0 i. 
distribution are suggested. The fact that birds’ nests are conta 
willow tops led to an investigation also of the plants used in ! 
ing. a 
AT THE EIGHTH annual session of the Iowa Academy of aoa 
. H. McBride: ‘af. 
the North American Cycads, and The distribution of XAus yer 
Mary A. Nichols: Observations on the pollination of some OF ae 
te; B. Fink: Some additions to the flora of Lowa; L. H. 
owdery mildew of the apple, Farther notes on Cladosporium ¢ 
