714 
in view of Hasselquist’s use of the name in 
1762, for the Upupa pyrrhocorax Linné (1758), 
which latter name was changed to Corvus pyr- 
rhocorax by Linné in 1766, Hasselquist’s name 
therefore having priority over the latter one by 
four years. Hasselquist’s name having ap- 
peared first in 1757, and later in a German 
translation of his work,* Mr. P. 8. Sclater 
(ScreNCcE, N.S. Vol. XIII., p. 626) thinks the 
name should not stand, as it was first described 
prior to 1758, and after that date only in a 
translation of Hasselquist’s work. If Mr. 
Sclater’s view be adopted, will it not be neces- 
sary to exclude many names occurring in the 
10th and 12th editions of the Systema Nature, 
because they were originally described in earlier 
editions of that work ? 
Whether the alpine chough occurs in ‘ Lower 
Egypt’ or not has in my opinion little bearing 
on the matter. The question is, is Monedula 
pyrrhocorax Hass, the same as Upupa (Corvus) 
pyrrhocorax Linné; and we have Linné, who 
personally examined Hasselquist’s collections, 
as an authority in the affirmative. 
WILLIAM J. Fox. 
THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, 
PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
BOTANICAL NOTES. 
THE STUDY OF MOSSES. 
Dr. A. J. Grout, of the Brooklyn Boys’ 
High School, has made the study of mosses 
much easier by the publication of a very pretty 
little book, entitled ‘Mosses with a Hand- 
Lens,’ and two sets of dried and carefully pre- 
pared specimens under the titles of ‘North 
American Musci Pleurocarpi’ and ‘ Hand- 
lens Mosses.’ The book is a thin octavo 
volume of about seventy-five pages, and is a 
non-technical handbook of the more common 
and more easily recognized mosses of the North- 
eastern United States. 
helpful figures, which, if not as smoothly en- 
graved as some to be found in recent text-books, 
haye the merit of clearly showing what they 
are intended to show. The descriptions are, as 
indicated above, non-technical, but they will 
perhaps prove all the more helpful to most be- 
* “Tter Paleestinum,’ ete., 1762. 
SCIENCE. 
It is illustrated by. 
[N.S. Vou. XIII. No. 331. 
ginners on that account. In all, one hundred 
species are noticed. The volume closes with 
an appropriate glossary of bryological terms 
and a brief index. The first collection of 
specimens will enable the beginner to recognize 
the genera and species represented, although — 
this was not the use which Dr. Grout had in 
mind in their preparation. They were designed 
rather for the benefit of the professional bry- 
ologist, but they will serve the beginner as 
well, since they illustrate the plants and their 
fruits. The second collection, which is just 
now appearing, was evidently suggested by the 
use here indicated. It consists of similar speci- 
mens, carefully selected and supplied with neat 
printed labels. 
BOTANICAL FACILITIES AFFORDED TO STUDENTS 
BY THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN. 
It is probably not generally known to what 
extent the rich treasures of the New York 
Botanical Garden are available to students of 
the several phases of botany. Although the 
institution is in the first lustrum of its existence, 
it inherited the collections of books and speci- 
mens left by Dr. Torrey after a long life of ac- 
cumulative activity. There are thus nearly 
one million specimens in the herbarium and 
about nine thousand volumes in the library. 
Added to these are the native plants growing 
in the woodlands, meadows and swamps of the 
two hundred and fifty acres of land constituting 
the domain of the Garden, supplemented by the 
plantations of herbaceous and woody vegeta- 
tion, and the already large collections under 
glass in the great Plant House. The labora- 
tories, of which there are physiological, em- 
bryological, chemical, morphological and tax- 
onomic, are housed in the fine building known 
as the ‘Museum Building.’ They occupy a 
suite of fourteen rooms on the upper floor of the 
building, and are admirably planned for the 
several lines of work to bedoneinthem. From 
a recent statement by the director we learn that 
opportunities are afforded for work in the fol- 
lowing subjects : Physiology of the cell, ecology, 
morphology of algae, morphology of fungi, mor- 
phology of bryophyta, morphology of pteri- 
dophyta, morphology of spermatophyta, exper- 
imental morphology, taxonomy of algae, tax- 
