November 30, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



853 



in order to combine the qualities and character- 

 istics of the kinds so treated. This advice 

 eventually bore fruit, and to-day the florist 

 plans to bring about a definite result by secur- 

 ing oflspring from the union of two plsTnts, 

 whose form, color, odor or other qualities he 

 may wish to intensify or modify. Among fruits 

 the grape, raspberry and strawberry have been 

 much modified by careful breeding. The tomato 

 illustrates what may be done by the skillful 

 breeder, as practically all the improvement 

 which it has undergone is due to carefully 

 planned hybridization, followed by as careful 

 selection. In like manner the cereals, maize 

 and wheat, have been improved in recent years 

 by the crossing of selected varieties. 



THE BUTTERCUP FAMILY. 



Under the title 'A Taxonomic Study of North 

 American Ranunculacese, ' Dr. C. K. Davis, of 

 the State Normal School, St. Cloud, Minn., 

 publishes a privately printed pamphlet of one 

 hundred and seventy-three octavo pages de- 

 scribing the genera and species of the North 

 AmericanRanunculaceae, native and introduced. 

 The studies (entirely taxonomic) on which the 

 pamphlet is based were made in Cornell Uni- 

 versity, where the author had access to the ad- 

 mirable collection of cultivated plants known as 

 ' Cornell Garden Herbarium,' as well as of ma- 

 terials and books in the National Herbarium, 

 the Herbarium of the New York Botanical 

 Garden, and the Gray Herbarium of Harvard 

 University. The result is an arrangement of 

 the family differing considerably from that of 

 either Bentham and Hooker in their ' Genera , 

 Plantarum,' orof Prantl in Englerand Prantl's 

 ' Natiii-lichenPflanzenfamilien,' although much 

 more like the latter than the former. Dr. Davis 

 proposes to divide the family (which for some 

 reason not given he calls an ' order ') into five 

 tribes, which he arranges in the following se- 

 quence : I. Crossosomeae ; II. Pwonieae ; III. 

 Helleboreae; IV. Clematideae ; V. Anemoneae. 

 The genus Crossosoma of Nuttall, referred by 

 Bentham and Hooker to the Dilleniaceae, and 

 by Eugler and Prantl made the type of a sepa- 

 rate family, Crossosomatacese, is here included 

 in the Ranunculacese. The two species and one 

 variety occur in Southern California, Arizona, 



and Northern Mexico. In the Helleboreae the 

 name Cammarum of Hill {Brit. Herb., 1756) 

 is substituted for Salisbury's name, Eranthis 

 (1807), in accordance with the suggestion 

 made by Professor Greene in Pittonia, April, 

 1897. 



The work is quite uneven, some portions 

 (notably those first published in the ' Minnesota 

 Botanical Studies') being much more scien- 

 tifically treated than others which were first 

 printed in horticultural magazines. The pages 

 falling under the latter category are printed in 

 different type, often in poor type, marring the 

 appearance of the book, and giving it a ' patch- 

 work ' appearance. However, in spite of its 

 unfortunate printing it is worthy of a place in 

 the library of every working botanist. 



RED CEDAR DISEASES. 



Dr. von Sckrenk, of the Shaw School of 

 Botany and Special Agent of the Division of 

 Vegetable Physiology and Pathology of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, de- 

 scribes (in Bulletin 21, of the Division) two 

 fungi which produce diseases of the wood of the 

 Red Cedar {Juniperug virginiana), known re- 

 spectively as ' white rot ' and ' red rot. ' The 

 first ultimately causes long holes, lined with 

 the brilliant white remains of the decayed tis- 

 sues, to appear in the wood at intervals of a few 

 inches. This disease is found to be due to a 

 species of Polyporus (Fomes) related to, if not 

 identical with, P. fomeniarius, and for which the 

 author proposes the name P. juniperinus. It 

 occurs in Kentucky and Tennessee. The ' red 

 rot ' is said to be more common than the pre- 

 ceding, and is more widely distributed, oc- 

 curring in Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Ten- 

 nessee, Virginia and New York. It produces 

 large holes in the wood, but these are brown 

 within, and are lined with the brown, cubically 

 cracked remains of the decayed wood. This is 

 found to be due to another species of Poly- 

 porus, viz, , P. carneus, a small, woody, flesh- 

 colored polypore, which grows in the holes at 

 the bases of the fallen branches. A number of 

 photographs, excellently reproduced, illustrate 

 this valuable paper. 



Charles E. Bessey. 



The University of Nebraska. 



