374 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [NOVEMBER 
fungi. He collected in the region about the city of Mexico, somewhat at Mt. 
Orizaba and Vera Cruz, and northward, the last stop being made at San Luis 
Potosi and vicinity. , 
ProFEssor W, F. GANONG, of Smith College, Northampton, Mass., 
wishes to obtain seeds of Cactacez collected in the-field by botanists who can 
vouch for the accuracy of their determinations, particularly from localities - 
outside of the United States. They are wanted for studies upon the embry- 
ology of the family in continuation of a work upon the subject now in press. ee 
Exchange will be made if desired. 
Tue NATIONAL HERBARIUM at Washington recently received the entire = 
collection made by Dr. W. H. Forwood in western Wyoming in the years ie 
1881-2. These plants form the basis for two reports published by the War 
Department, both of which are now quite difficult to obtain. Many of them, 
also, are reported upon in Mr, Frank Tweedy’s Flora of the Yellowstone. 
THE REPORT of Dr. D. Prain, the Director of the Botanical Survey of 
India, for the year 1897-8, is largely occupied by a continuation of Professor 
Woodrow’s Flora of Western India. He records the botanical explorations 
which have been made during the year, of portions of Assam and Burma; in 
the latter of which great assistance was rendered by Lieut. E. Pottinger, 
R. A.— Nature. 
A PRIZE OF 4000 MARKS is offered by the Economic Society of Mohrun- 
gen, near Kénigsberg, for the best work on the relations of electricity to 
living organisms. This work must discuss either fundamentally new phenom — 
ena in plant or animal electricity, or, from the point of view of physics, dis- 
cuss the sources of organic electricity, or its significance for life in general 
or for certain functions. 
eine 
UNDER THE AUSPICES of the New York Botanical Garden Mr. S. — 
Heller will shortly leave for Porto Rico to make collections of the eae 
ectly 
our newly acquired territory. The flora of this island is very impertechy 
represented in herbaria either in this country or in Europe. Arrangements 3 
will be made for preserving specimens both dried and in formalin. The 
expenses of the expedition will be borne by Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt. 
IN HIS ADDRESS before the Section of Botany of the British Association, — 
Professor F. O. Bower, President, discusses the homology of the members 0 a 
the plant body at large with special reference to the question of bo 
involved in the alternation of generations in green plants. The paper Is sei 
that will be of large interest at the present time. It includes, also, 
suggestive remarks upon the methods to be used in terminology. Prof ae 
Marshall Ward read a paper upon Penicillium as a wood destroying a 
in which he showed that this plant, one of our commonest molds, ue 
