76 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [ JULY 
Dr. V. F. BRoTHERUS, of Helsingfors, left about the middle of April 
upon a botanical journey into central Asia. He will explore the high moun- 
tain flora of Issikul, giving particular attention to the mosses. He expects 
to return about the first of September. 
PRoFEsSOR C. S. SARGENT, of Boston, and M. H. de Vilmorin, of Paris, 
are the best known of the four recipients of the Veitch medals, awarded by 
the Royal Horticultural Society to gardeners promoting the advance of horti- 
culture. (Gard. Chron., May 16).—S. 
PROFESSOR GANONG, of Smith College, has distributed, as a separate 
from the elective pamphlet, an outline of the courses in botany offered for 
1896-7. It would be useful to botanists if the practice were general, so that 
each might know what is offered to students in the way of advanced work. 
A WELL-EXECUTED colored plate of Erythronium mesochoreum Knerr is 
published in the commencement number of 7he Mid/and, the college maga- 
zine of Midland College, Atchison, Kansas. A short general account of the 
plant by Professor E. B. Knerr is also illustrated by text figures of sterile and 
fertile plants of £. albidum and E. mesochoreum. 
A CONTINUATION of Briquet’s Zadiate forms part 1340f Die Natiirlich- 
en Phlanzenfamilien. We note in it the splitting up of Cedroned/la, retain- 
ing the old name for the single species of the Canary islands, and recognizing 
two American genera, Meehania Britton, and Brittonastrum Briquet. Part 
135 contains the conclusion of Engler’s Burseracea, and Meliacee by H. 
Harms, 
Mr. F. S. Ear te, formerly connected with the Gulf Station of the 
Mississippi Agricultural Experiment Station and with the Agricultural 
Department of the United States, was appointed adjunct professor of horti- 
culture at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute in January last. Upon Professor 
Underwood's appointment to Columbia University he was recently promoted 
to the professorship of biology. : 
FOLLOWING the appearance of our violets in the Synoptical Flora, Pro- 
fessor E. L. Greene (Pittonia, May 16), and Mr. C. L. Pollard (Proc. Biol. Soe» 
Wash., May 26) have added to the literature of the genus. The work of 
the former was mentioned in this journal for June. Mr. Pollard deals with 
the purple-flowered acaulescent forms of the Atlantic coast, presenting te 
forms, of widely different limitation and nomenclature from the presentation 
of the same forms in the Synoptical Flora. j 
RECENT NUMBERS of the Gardeners’ Chronicle (Apr. 4, 18, and May 2) 
give considerable space to a discussion of the larch disease, or blister, caused 
_by the fungus, Pesiza Wil/kommi,. with several illustrations. The disease 
originates probably in early spring when the hydrostatic pressure is consider- 
