59 



orthotropous annually innovating branchlets, a much less pro- 

 nounced dorsiventrality, evidently emarginate, appressed under 

 leaves and an underground rhizome. No intermediate condi- 

 tions were found to reward a diligent and repeated search on the 

 part of two observers over an acre of ground where both plants 

 were growing side by side in great abundance. One is there- 

 fore irresistibly driven to the conclusion, no matter what view 

 may be taken of the question of species, that here at least are 

 distinct plants which must be completely separated in order 

 satisfactorily to recognize their differences. 



Finally, the authorities for Lycopodhim Fawcettii and L. poro- 

 philum are quoted incorrectly. It would appear that there is but 

 one alternative in such matters, either to leave the authority out 

 altogether or to give it correctly. 



NEWS ITEMS 



William Austin Cannon, A.M. (Stanford University), has been 

 reappointed Fellow in Botany in Columbia University. Mr. 

 Cannon is making a special study of certain features of hybridiza- 

 tion in plants. 



Mr. Jared G. Smith, of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 has gone to Honolulu to assume the directorship of the Hawaiian 

 Agricultural Experiment Station. 



Mr. Roland M. Harper, graduate student in the Botanical De- 

 partment of Columbia University, is temporarily in Washington, 

 D. C, as special assistant in the United States National Herbarium. 



Professor William F. Ganong's paper, entitled " Suggestions 

 for an Attempt to secure a standard College Entrance Option in 

 Botany," read before the Society for Plant Morphology and 

 Physiology at the Baltimore meeting, December 28, 1900, is 

 published in Science for April 19, 1901. 



A suggestive contribution to the literature bearing upon ques- 

 tions of nomenclature is " The Determination of the Type in com- 

 posite Genera of Animals and Plants," by President David Starr 

 Jordan, printed in Science for March 29, 1901. 



