1898 } CURRENT LITERATURE 283 
been described since. The /udex Kewensis cites about ninety specific 
names, and recognizes fifty-four as good. Students of the genus have long 
suspected that most of the so-called species are but forms of a few exceed- 
ingly variable species, and Mr. Irish has reached the conclusion that there 
are but two species, C. ammuum and C. /frutescens, the one annual or 
biennial, the other perennial. He has preserved the well-fixed types of cul- 
tivated forms as botanical varieties. Twenty-one plates fully illustrate the 
paper, which is a remarkable piece of patient work in a very perplexing 
subject. 
3. HiTcHcock, ALBERT S.: “List of cryptogams collected in the 
Bahamas, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman.” These collections were made the 
winter of 1890-1, and a list of the spermatophytes and pteridophytes was 
published in the fourth annual report of the Garden. The list of crypto- 
gams contains seventy-three species, some of them new, and all determined 
by specialists in the several groups. 
OSE, J. N.: “ Agave Washingtonensis and other agaves flowering in 
the Washington Botanic Garden in 1897.” The large collection of agaves 
in the Botanic Garden at Washington has never been critically studied, and 
promises to contain several undescribed species, one of which Mr. Rose and 
J. G. Baker describe and figure in the present paper. 
5. THOMPSON, CHARLES HENRY: “ The species of Cacti commonly cul- 
tivated under the generic name Anhalonium.” Mr. Thompson has done 
good service in supplying full notes and excellent photographs of living 
plants of these disputed forms. He regards the group as consisting of two 
genera, Ariocarpus Scheidw. (Anhalonium Lem.) and Lophophora Coulter. 
The report closes with a series of ‘‘ Notes and observations ”’ as follows : 
“ The Epidendrum venosum of Florida,” by W. Trelease, with full descrip- 
tion and two plates; “ Miscellaneous observations on Yucca,” by W. Tre- 
lease, with four plates; “The Missouri dogbanes,” by W. Trelease, with two 
plates ; “ A coloring matter found in some Borraginacez,” by J. B.S. ae 
“Notes on some plants chiefly from the southern United States,” by J. B 
Norton, with five plates and three new species; “A new disease of mee 
vated palms,” ce W. Trelease ; and “ Parmelia molliuscula,” by Henry 
Willey.— J. M 
The flora of Africa. 
THE activity, not to say rivalry, displayed by taxonomists of Belgium, 
England, France, and Germany in the publication of the African flora is 
remarkable. The book before us? is a Belgian contribution, the first part 
bee TH. ed ste Me HANS: Conaperctas Flore Africe. Vol. I, part 2. 
eae 8vo. pp. 268. Berlin: R. Friedlander 
and Soha: Paris : Paul Klincksieck. /7. 12.50 
