490 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 771 



tematic treatment of tlie genera and species of 

 these two groups, the first with but two genera 

 and three species, the second with seven genera 

 and fifty-four species. 



Here should be noticed the recent " Heften " 

 (3, 4, 5, seventh series) of Karsten and 

 Schenck's " Vegetationsbilder." The first of 

 these by Otto Feueht illustrates the Black 

 Forest ; the second, by L. Adamovie, deals with 

 Dalmatian vegetation, and the third, by Felix 

 Eosen, illustrates the characteristic plants of 

 the Abyssinian highlands. The plates main- 

 tain the extraordinarily high degree of perfec- 

 tion which has characterized the previous 

 numbers, and the text is all that could be 

 desired. How the German publisher (Fischer) 

 can afford to publish these Heften for the low 

 price of four Marks each is a source of wonder 

 to American botanists. 



RECENT PAPERS ON ALGAE 



Professor Griggs's paper " Juvenile Kelps 

 and the Eecapitulation Theory" {Am. Nat., 

 January and February, 1909) takes up a profit- 

 able line of inquiry as to the young stages of 

 many of the large brovra sea-weeds, giving 

 especial attention to Benfrewia, Lessoniopsis, 

 Egregia and Hedophyllum. He reaches the 

 conclusion, contrary to that of many zoolo- 

 gists, "that though organisms are subject to 

 adaptation at any stage of their life cycles and 

 may gradually cut out superfluous stages, yet, 

 except as some such tendency has operated to 

 change the heritage, the development of the 

 individual does recapitulate the history of the 

 race." 



Dr. M. A. Howe's " Phycological Studies — 

 IV." (Bull. Torr. Bot. Gluh, February, 1909) 

 is devoted to a monograph of Neomeris (of 

 which there are now known six species) ; two 

 West Indian species of Acetabulum; a new 

 species of Halimeda (from the Bahama 

 Islands), and several species of TJdotea, ac- 

 companied with six helpful plates. 



WittrocMella is the very pretty generic 

 name given by the well-knov^n Norwegian 

 algologist, Wille (Nyt Mag. of Nature, Cd. 

 47), to a small, fresh- water chlorophyll-green 

 alga which occurs in the brackish waters of 



southern Norway in company with Rivularia, 

 Microcoleus and other Myxophyceae. It ia 

 related to Trentopholia, and has been made 

 the type of a new family, WittrocMellaceae, 

 of the order Ghaetophorales. 



Other papers on algae are Otto Miiller's 

 " Ortsbewegung der Bacillariaceen," VI. and 

 VII. ; A. Seherffel's " Asterococcus," and 

 " Schizochlamys " and N. WUle's " Oocystis," 

 in recent numbers of the Berichte d. Deut- 

 schen, Bot. Oesellschaft. 



A HANDFUL OP FUNGDS AND PATHOLOGICAL PAPERS 



One of the best-printed bulletins on fungi 

 that has come to notice is Dr. N. A. Cobb's 

 " Fungus Maladies of the Sugar Cane," issued 

 by the Experiment Station of the Hawaiian 

 Sugar Planters Association (Bull. No. 6, of 

 Division of Pathology and Physiology). The 

 paper, printing and illustrations are remark- 

 ably fine. The text will prove interesting to 

 most botanists, especially those who have not 

 followed strictly the latest developments in 

 plant pathology. Thus the stinkhorns (Phal- 

 laceae) are shown to be associated with a root 

 disease of the sugar cane, and species of 

 Ithyphallus, Dictyophora and Clathrus are 

 described as pretty certainly responsible for 

 the injury. Other diseases of the cane, as 

 " tip wither," " ring spot," " eye spot," " rind 

 disease," etc., are described and remedies sug- 

 gested. "With this portion of the text there 

 are seven elegant colored plates. The closing 

 chapter is devoted to " timber rots," and here 

 the text illustrations are unusually fine. 



From the Bureau of Plant Industry of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture we 

 have a bulletin on " The Control of Black-rot 

 of the Grape," by Messrs. Shear, Miles and 

 Hawkins, in which the conclusion is reached 

 that proper spraying with Bordeaux mixture 

 is effective in preventing the disease. Other 

 papers from the bureau are J. E. Johnston's 

 Bud-rot of the Coconut Palm " (thought to 

 be due to bacteria) ; Parley Spaulding's 

 " European Currant Eust on the White Pine 

 in America " (a recent importation) ; the same 

 author's " Present Status of the White Pine 

 Blights " (a very useful summary of what is 

 known of this " complex of several different 



