Mabch 23, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



473 



The third annual issue of the volume on 

 ' Meteorology ' of the International Catalogue 

 of Scientific Literature, dated October, 1905, 

 contains chiefly titles belonging to the year 

 1903 and the earlier part of 1904. The num- 

 ber of pages is 235, as against 296 in the 

 second annual issue (1902) and 184 in the first. 

 Such a bibliography as this, unsatisfactory as 

 it is in some respects, is certainly a very great 

 help to the working meteorologist and cli- 

 matologist. 



Observations at the meteorological observa- 

 tory at Perpignan during the solar eclipse of 

 August 30, last, showed a fall of 6.7° in tem- 

 perature; a rise of 12 per cent, in relative 

 humidity ; no ' eclipse wind,' but rather a 

 calm {Ciel et Terre, December 16, 1905). 



Reference has been made in Science to the 

 work carried out by the Blue Hill Observatory 

 staff at St. Louis in 1904 with the aid of 

 hallons-sondes. Mr. A. Lawrence Eotch, in 

 the Proceedings of the American Academy of 

 Arts and Science, Vol. XLL, No. 14, De- 

 cember, 1905, describes this investigation 

 under the title ' On the First Observations 

 with Eegistration Balloons in America.' 



R. DeC. Ward. 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 



botanicaIj articles in recent periodicals. 



In the Iowa Naturalist, for October, R. I. 

 Cratty monographs the Juncaceae of Iowa, 

 distinguishing nine species of the genus 

 Juncus, and two of Juncoides. In the same 

 number, T. J. Fitzpatrick publishes his treat- 

 ment of the Melanthaceae of Iowa, in which 

 he includes one species of Zygadenus, one of 

 Melanthium, one of Yeratrum, and three of 

 Uvularia. — ' The Willows of Ohio ' is the title 

 of a monograph by R. F. Griggs in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Ohio State Academy of Sci- 

 ence (pt. 6, Vol. IV.). It covers fifty-eight 

 pages and includes keys, descriptions and half- 

 tone reproductions of photographs by means 

 of which the twenty-two species and varieties 

 are well distinguished. — F. L. Sargent's arti- 

 cles, ' Lichenology for Beginners,' published in 

 the Bryologist in^l905, have now been issued 

 as a twenty-page pamphlet. It presents in 



simple language the essential structural facts 

 in regard to lichens. The text is made still 

 plainer by a number of cuts of fruits and 

 spores. The pamphlet closes with a useful 

 artificial key to the comnaon eastern species. — 

 It is a pleasure to record the completion (De- 

 cember, 1905) of Forbes and Hemsley's 

 ' Enumeration of all the Plants known from 

 China proper, Formosa, Hainan, Corea, the 

 Luchu Archipelago, and the Island of Hong- 

 kong, together with their Distribution and 

 Synonomy,' which has been in course of publi- 

 cation in the Journal of the Linnean Society 

 for many years. The enumeration contains 

 8,271 species, of which 4,230 are not known to 

 occur outside of the Chinese empire. It is 

 estimated that the total number of species 

 when known, will reach at least twelve thou- 

 sand. — In the Records of the Botanical 

 Survey of India (Vol. IV., No. 2), Sir J. D. 

 Hooker publishes an epitome of the British 

 Indian species of Impatiens. He records 

 sixty-three species from the eastern Himalayas 

 from central Nepal to Upper Assam, and fifty- 

 two species from the Burmese region. The 

 well-known cultivated species, Impatiens 

 halsamina, occurs wild in both regions. — 

 Engler's ' Pflanzenreich ' has reached the 

 twenty-second ' heft ' which is devoted to the 

 family Primulaceae, elaborated by F. Pax and 

 E. Knuth. The 530 species are assigned to 

 twenty-two genera, in five tribes. Of the lat- 

 ter, the tribe Androsaceae is by far the largest, 

 containing 361 species. The larger genera are 

 Primula with 208 species; Androsace, 84; 

 Dodecatheon, 30 ; Cyclamen, 16 ; Lysimachia, 

 110; and Anagallis, 24. The treatment is con- 

 servative, both as to generic and specific 

 limitations. No new genera are set up, and 

 few new species are described. However, when 

 some modern species-maker gets into the 

 family, he'll find an abundance of varieties 

 ready to his hand for elevation to specific rank. 



cryptogamae formationum coloradensium. 



Fobii j'ears ago F. E. and E. S. Clements 

 issiied their ' Herbaria Formationum ■ Color- 

 adensium,' consisting of about six hundred 

 sheets (xH specimens of higher plants, ar- 



