1906] CURRENT LITERATURE 147 
and anthocyan, the vegetation of the “polygonal” soils, and to make miscel- 
laneous floristic notes at various stations. The transpiration he finds very feeble 
and almost without diurnal periodicity or plant control. This feeble transpira- 
tion he accuses of being a cause of feeble growth; instead, is not its feebleness 
due to the same cause as the feebleness of growth, the low supply of energy ? 
Mycorhizas, internal and external, are common. Anthocyan is found in fifty 
species, about half the known higher plants. It is always lacking in plants grow- 
ing on soil enriched by the droppings of wild birds, whereas the same species 
growing on poor soils show it abundantly. As to the rdle of anthocyan, he holds 
it for an absorber of energy, and without it no plant can become dominant in 
arctic regions. For other interesting observations one must consult the work 
itself —C. R. B. 
Polypodiacez and edible fungi—Not that there is any connection between 
them; but both are treated by CopELAND in a bulletin+ from the Government 
Laboratories at Manila. The section on Polypodiacee forms the bulk of the 
bulletin and is “an attempt to collect and publish descriptions of all the ferns 
known to have been found in these islands.”” The author adds: “I am not per- 
sonally acquainted with a large part of those ferns still known here only from 
earlier collections.” Which leads us to remark that he should then have abstained 
from describing a new genus and new species among them, as hedid in Dr. 
PERKIns’s last Fragmenta. In reprinting here these descriptions he has neglected 
to indicate that they have already been published elsewhere. He has sinned again 
in adding one more new name in this bulletin. The compilation of such 
descriptive floras is undoubtedly serviceable; but one who is not a taxonomist 
and who confesses the absence of indispensable books and specimens, should 
not take the chances of cumbering pteridology with new names which may or 
may not be justified. And the same may be said regarding the brief fungus 
part.—C. RB. 
Genera of Mexican plants.—The flora of Mexico is so closely related to our 
own that any work on it is of essential assistance to American taxonomists. So 
we welcome the assembling and description of the Mexican genera, and the list- 
ing of the species, undertaken by Professor ConzaTTI, director of the State Nor- 
mal School of Oaxaca, of which the first volume, on Polypetalae, has recently 
been published by the Ministry of Public Works. This volume 5 begins with an 
artificial key covering about 50 pages*including all genera, and contains descrip- 
tions of 667 genera of Polypetale, representing 71 families, and including close 
to 4,500 species. This is to be followed by another on Gamopetalae and a third 
4CopELAND, E. B., I. The Polypodiacee of the Philippine Islands. II]. New 
species of edible Philippine fungi. Bureau of Government Labs. Bull. 28. 8vo. 
pp. 146. pls. 3. 1905. 
sConzatTI, C., Los géneros vegetales mexicanos. Imp. 8vo. pp. 449. Mexico: 
Oficina Tip. de la Secretaria de Fomento. 1905. $3 (Mexican). 
