502 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [ DECEMBER 
Mr. CsJ. ELMorE reviews! the several systems of classification of the 
diatoms, favoring Petit’s as approaching “most nearly to a natural one, 
because based on characters having a physiological significance,” viz., on the 
structure of the endochrome and the mode of forming auxospores. In higher 
plants these are unstable characters; are they not likely to be so also in the 
diatoms? : 
For SOME TIME before his death, Professor D.C. Eaton had been prepar- 
ing to issue a set of SPhagna in collaboration with Mr. Edwin Faxon. That 
work has now been completed by Mr. Faxon, and a set of 172 specimens, 
representing 39 species, their varieties and forms, has been issued by Mr. 
eo. F. Eaton with the title Sphagna Boreali-Americana Exsiccata. Most of 
the determinations are by Warnstorf, and no pains have been spared to make 
the set first-class in every particular. Those who already know the beauty 
of specimens prepared by Mr. Faxon need not be assured that these are 
fine and abundant. For the credit of American bryology it is only just to 
say that no previous issue of moss exsiccati anywhere to our knowledge sur- 
passes this one in the abundance and beauty of the specimens or in careful 
labeling. Sixty sets will be issued at $15 per set.— C. R. B 
IN HIS ADDRESS upon “grasses,” before the Massachusetts Horticultural 
Society last March, Mr. F. Lamson-Scribner gave a brief account of the uses, 
form, structure, and distribution of grasses, and then discussed the economic 
grasses of Massachusetts, concluding with a short statement of the work of 
the division of agrostology. 
As a part of this work we note the recent issue of a bulletin (No. 3) upon 
useful and ornamental grasses of all countries. In the introduction a num- 
ber of the most important economic grasses are classified according to their 
uses, while the body of the bulletin enumerates about 375 species, illustrated 
by eighty-nine figures, with a short account of their qualities, value, an 
culture. The compilation is a very useful one. 
NOTES FOR STUDENTS. 
the Bulletin of Torrey Botanical Club for May of this year. Bidcsoeats 
flexuosa Tracy & Earle, and C. Diospyri ferruginea Atkinson, are rere 
to synonyms of C. Drospyri Thiimen, the three names having been applied 
to different stages of growth of the same fungus.—J. C. A. 
* American Naturalist 30: 529-536. 1896. 
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