148 
the fall of 1889, coming from Olivet College, Michigan, and 
received the A.B. degree the following June. Dr. Bessey states 
that all of his botanical work at the university was of the highest 
grade. Because of weak lungs, he spent most of the remainder 
of his life in California. 
His chief publications are the ‘Flora of Pasadena and Vicin- 
ity,” being a contribution to Reid’s ‘History of Pasadena,” 
printed in 1895, and the ‘‘Seedless Plants of Southern California,” 
printed in the Proceedings of the Southern California Academy of 
Science 1: 337-398. 1897. The former work is based on col- 
lections made by himself and his wife in 1892 and 1893, the 
difficult specimens having been sent to Setchell, Ellis, Morgan, 
Peck, Underwood, Barnes, Hasse and others for determination. 
Duplicate specimens are to be found in the herbaria of many of 
these men. The total number of species and varieties of all 
kinds of plants listed is 1,056, of which 62 are new, although none 
are described in this work. The higher fungi were collected 
chiefly from January to June, and the leaf-inhabiting forms 
during the rest of the year. Alli of the gill-fungi pronounced 
edible were tested by the author personally. About fifty gill- 
fungi remained undetermined. An idea of the scope of the work 
may be obtained from the number of species listed under certain 
groups of fungi, as follows: Tremellaceae 3, Thelephoraceae 17, 
Clavariaceae 4, Hydnaceae 4, Polyporaceae 19, Boletaceae 1, 
Agaricaceae 74, Gasteromycetes 17. 
n the later work on the seedless plants of southern California, 
the total number of species listed is 1,033, of which 630 are fungi, 
81 bryophytes, and 33 pteridophytes. Of the rI02 species of 
Agaricaceae, in 38 genera, 7 species are here described as new, 
and these are the only descriptions in the work. The Gaster- 
omycetes are represented by 20 species in 15 genera. Other 
Tremellaceae 5, Thelephoraceae 23, Clavariaceae 4, Hydnaceae 5, 
Polyporaceae 27, Boletaceae 2. In addition to specific names 
and generic keys, notes on the occurrence, habitat, and host 
plants are given in most cases. 
W. A. Murri_e. 
