CURRENT LITERATURE. 
NOLES FOR STUDENTS. 
ALFRED J. Ewart’ continues to hold it as proved, in spite of Kny’s 
objections, that isolated chlorophlastids may continue to assimilate for a short 
time after removal from the parent cell.—J. M. C 
IN HIS INTRODUCTORY presentatation of the pteridophytes, Sadebeck? 
outlines five main groups, FILICALES, SPRENOPHYLLALES, EQUISETALES, 
LYCOPODIALES, and CyCADOFILICES. The three groups of FILICALES are 
Fil. leptosporangiate (with the natural isosporous and heterosporous sub- 
divisions), Marattiales, and Ophioglossales. The EQUISETALES are subdivided, 
on the basis of isospory and heterospory, into Eueguisetales and Calamariales. 
The LycopopiaLes have as their main divisions Zyc. eligulate and Lyc. 
ligulate ; the subdivisions of the former being Psilotinee and Lycopodiinee ; 
of the latter, Sedaginellinee, Lepidophytinea, and Isoetinee. The taxonomist 
who delights in uniformity of group names, and also names that indicate the 
rank of groups, will not be pleased.—J. M. C 
THE INTERESTING discovery of a set of the plants collected on the Lewis 
and Clark expedition and named by Pursh forms the subject of a paper by 
Mr. Thomas Meehan.3 Pursh in his Flora refers to 1 Ig as having been col- 
lected, many of which were new. The fate of the collection was unknown, 
the general understanding being that Pursh took the plants to England, and 
left them to Lambert, an officer of the Linnean Society, and that upon the 
distribution of Lambert's herbarium the plants were scattered. The occur- 
rence of a large number of types in the collection made the loss of it a serious 
one. It seems that two years ago Professor C. S. Sargent suggested to Mr. 
Meehan that some of the material might be in the custody of the American 
Philosophical Society. After a long search the original packages were found 
unopened, some of them in bad condition, but the collection as a whole fairly 
preserved. Pursh’s labels and notes made the discovery certain. The col- 
lection was sent to the Gray Herbarium for final identification, and Mr. 
Meehan includes in his account the very full and satisfactory report by he 
B. L. Robinson and Mr. J. M. Greenman. Several interesting discoveries 
were made which will correct certain current identifications, In presenting 
the report parallel columns are used, one giving the present name of the 
plant, the other the treatment of the plant in Pursh’s Flora. The discovery 
* Bot. Centralbl. 75 : 33-36. 1898. 
*Engler and Prantl’s “ Die Natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien” 14: 1-48. 1898. 
3 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 12-49. 1898. 
148 [ AUGUST 
