560 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 173. 



JNew Yoi'k Island to show the topography 

 in 1776 as contrasted with the present, and 

 a model of the Catskills, in which the 

 vertical and horizontal scale being the 

 same, the exact features were reproduced. 

 In the department of physics a number of 

 pieces of apparatus were exhibited from 

 Columbia University, to show the latest 

 advances in laboratory investigations and 

 materials therefor. The stremmatograph, 

 and records of results obtained on the Bos- 

 ton and Albany Railroad, exhibited by Mr. 

 P. H. Dudley, attracted an unusual amount 

 of interest. The last exhibit, at the end of 

 the hall, was in electricity, and included a 

 number of new pieces of apparatus from 

 •Columbia University and elsewhere, among 

 which should be mentioned an induction 

 coil with thirty-inch spark, and apparatus 

 illustrating the Marconi system of trans- 

 mitting signals to a distance without wire. 

 The amount of interest that has been 

 awakened by the annual receptions and ex- 

 hibitions in New York City is very large, 

 and has increased greatly within the last 

 year. We all feel that such an exhibit is a 

 most helpful way in which to bring the 

 knowledge of science before the people, and 

 the appreciative interest of the visitors has 

 proved an inspiration even to the most 

 tskeptical. The annual exhibition of the 

 Academy has come to be looked upon as 

 one of the scientific events of the year by 

 the inhabitants of New York scientifically 

 interested, and will undoubtedly be re- 

 peated each spring indefinitely. 



EicHARD E. Dodge. 



CURRENT NOTES ON BOTANY. 

 A NEW PLANT CATALOGUE. 



Mb. a. a. Heller, of the University of 

 Minnesota, has compiled what must prove 

 to be a most useful catalogue of the 

 higher plants (Pteridophytes and Spermato- 

 phytes) of North America north of Mexico. 



It is the first attempt at making such a 

 catalogue under the ' Rochester and Madi- 

 son Rules ' and following the Eichler se- 

 quence of families, and for this reason is of 

 more than ordinary interest. It is more- 

 over the first catalogue of the plants of 

 North America prepared by a working 

 botanist. 



There are 14,534 entries with a few 

 duplicated numbers, which ma^'^ increase 

 the whole number by fifty or seventy-five 

 more. Of this vast number more than 14,- 

 000 are flowering plants proper, there being 

 263 ferns and fern- allies and 112 gymno- 

 sperms. The largest families are Com- 

 positse (exclusive of Cichoriacese, 146) 

 with 2149 species ; Papilionacete 1095, with 

 129 in the closely related Ca3salpiniacese 

 and Mimosaceje ; Graminese, 938 ; Cypera- 

 cese, 724. The larger genera are Carex 

 with 431 species; Astragalus, 252; Eriogo- 

 num, 184 ; Aster, 157 ; Erigeron, 137 ; Soli- 

 dago, 114. We learn also that there are 15 

 North American palms, and 210 orchids. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DIFFICULTIES IN BOTANY. 



Dr. E. L. Greene prints, in a recent 

 number of the Catholic University Balletin, a 

 thoughtful discussion of some of the trou- 

 bles which confront the systematic bota- 

 nists. In it he makes some pertinent re- 

 marks upon the importance of nomencla- 

 tural accuracy in science: "There is, of 

 course, no science without its nomenclature 

 and terminology. And in botany nothing 

 can be done, at least no results of research 

 can be communicated, apart from the names 

 of the plants or groups of plants which have 

 been under investigation. Just as the cor- 

 rect and full and true name of any man is 

 a kind of necessity of his existence as a 

 member of society, so the name of the 

 family, of the genus and of the species to 

 which any tree or shrub or herb belongs is 

 indispensable to a scientific, or, indeed, any 

 kind of understanding and discussion of it." 



