296 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [APRIL 
solid ground, and advance should be made from fact to fact only. Popular 
literature is quite full enough of fanciful conceptions of plants without addi- 
tions from the laboratory. 
The entire paper, however, will be interesting reading to that class of 
biologists who profess to see in plants a series of degraded forms, which 
began retrogression on the acquisition of the habit of fixation.—D. T. Mac- 
DOouGAL. 
MINOR NOTICES. 
THE Cur D'ALENE mountains of Idaho have long been known as 
interesting botanical ground. All of northern Idaho presents that combina- 
tion of conditions which has resulted in an unusual flora. During the sum- 
mer of 1895 Mr. John B. Leiberg undertook a botanical survey of the Coeur 
d’Alenes, under the direction of the Division of Botany, of the Department 
of Agriculture. This survey was the more significant and fruitful as Mr. 
Leiberg had lived in northern Idaho for about ten years, and was already 
very familiar with the region. A contribution? just published gives us some 
of the results, dealing with matters both biologic and economic, as follows: 
topography, drainage, climate, mineral deposits, agricultural capacity, agri- 
cultural. products, grazing lands, native food plants, utilization of water sup- 
ply, forest resources, forest zones, forest destruction, burned areas, forest 
preservation, and a new system of timber protection.—J. M. C. 
| RECENT BULLETINS from the experiment stations embrace a variety of 
botanical subjects. E. J. Durand (Cornell no. 125) describes a disease of cur- 
rant canes observed in New York and New Jersey not before noted in this coun- 
try. Threefungi were found: 7udercularia vulgaris, Nectria cinnabarina and 
Pleonectria berolinensis, of which the first two are the chief or only cause of 
the disease, and also are undoubtedly forms of one species. Little was 
accomplished with cultures and a ulations. A. S. Hitchcock (Kans. no. 
62), in thirty-four pages and ten plates, gives much information about two 
species of corn smut (Usti Successful infection experiments were 
ago 
Saude no. abe briefly describes an 
i seases of the fo: 
s Ct srantiacum, Daucus Carota 
Sei etal: are on 
: opular account of the. care and handling of 
i nme Contrib. Nat. H. erb. 521-85: 1897. 
Te nas t classes. A 
and th their study i is 5 presented by C. z. Marshall (Mich. no. 139) in thirty-seveD — 
pages. Three troublesome w Hi. 
! report ona botanical survey of the Coeur d’Alene | 
