February 13, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



259 



sections are to be made simply to study the 

 cuticle, the best plan is to remove the epi- 

 dermis from the leaf before passing into 

 reagents. Double staining with hjema- 

 toxyliu and Sudan III. is recommended for 

 photomierographie purposes. 



Suggestions Felafive to Botanical Period- 

 icals and Citations: W. A. Kellekman, 

 Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. 

 Since botanical periodicals have become 

 numerous, it is considered desirable and 

 practicable that there should be greater 

 specialization, and especially that contrib- 

 utors should offer their manuscripts to 

 those substantial journals which most dis- 

 tinctly represent the phase of botany con- 

 cerned. If authors would thus generally 

 discriminate according to the nature of their 

 copy, existing and more or less special- 

 ized periodicals would become more valu- 

 able to the class of readers to which each 

 principall}^ appeals. Opportunity would 

 also offer for additional magazines dis- 

 tinctive in character and definite in scope. 

 Ready and accurate citation would be 

 enhanced if publications always bore sim- 

 ple, short and correct titles. Proper run- 

 ning head-lines are indispensable. They 

 should contain (left page) page number, 

 name of publication and volume number 

 (also series if any), and (right page) date, 

 subject (or author and subject) and page 

 number, in order just named. No number 

 of part (if any) should appear in head- 

 line; it should only appear on cover-page. 

 The niles for citation adopted by the 

 Madison Botanical Congress should be 

 amended in several respects — the more im- 

 portant being that section which reciuires 

 the use of the illy understood and scarcely 

 suggestive abbreviations for the months, 

 such as P., Ja., Ag., 0., N. and D. ; the 

 well-established abbreviations are generally 

 used and should be sanctioned by rule. 



Origin of the Patagonian Flora: Professor 

 Geo. Macloskie, Princeton, N. J. 

 The Patagonian flora (including that of 

 southern Chili and the islands) contains 

 about 2,100 species and 300 good varieties 

 of phanei'ogams already described, belong- 

 ing to 522 genera and 110 families. The 

 Gramineee have 276 species with 50 varie- 

 ties, and the Compositae about 400 species. 

 They are chiefly derived from the Andean 

 region ; fewer from Argentina ; with minor 

 but significant contributions from Aus- 

 tralasia, New Zealand and the Antarctic 

 islands. Papers of Gray, Hooker and 

 others about the North American flora are 

 here amended so as to suppose a migi-ation 

 southwards on the advent of cold periods, 

 sending to Australia and southern Chili, as 

 far as Fuegia, forms which had been pre- 

 viously derived from the Arctic lands ; also 

 so as to consider the flora of the Northern 

 Hemisphere and the Oregon-Cordilleras of 

 North America as not primitively Scandi- 

 navian, but rather from Central Asia, 

 whence they have radiated in all directions. 

 This explains some of the affinities between 

 the flora of Patagonia and that of Aus- 

 tralia, New Zealand, Japan, etc. Besides 

 this, there are evidences of direct transfer 

 of plants between Patagonia, New Zealand 

 and Australasia, by either sea or currents 

 of air ; and probably there was at one time, 

 not a land-continuum, but a chain of 

 islands such as would result from the ele- 

 vation of the Cordilleras towards the south, 

 and consequent emergence of elevated re- 

 gions in the direction of South Shetlands 

 and of parts towards the south pole. 

 Victoria Land, beyond the south pole, with 

 its volcanoes, may be part of this Cordil- 

 leran extension, and other fan-like expan- 

 sions are traceable. 



There are so many isolated and char- 

 acteristic forms in Patagonia and neighbor- 

 ing parts as to indicate that it is a true 



