186 



From a study of the recent monograph of the West Indian 

 species,* we find that the plants most nearly related to Mikania 

 alba are evidently M. papulosa Klatt of Hispaniola and M. 

 Sivartziana Griseb. of eastern Cuba. 



From the former the new plant presents marked differences in 

 the stem, which is angled in papulosa, round in alba ; in having 

 entire, not lobed leaves as in the Hispaniola plant, and in having 

 a reticulate-rugose instead of a nearly smooth surface as in papu- 

 losa. The inflorescence in alba is paniculate-racemose ; in papu- 

 losa, axillary, solitary, or sometimes a simple raceme. The cor- 

 olla of the new plant is white, in papulosa it is yellow. 



The differences between Sivartziana and alba are chiefly in the 

 lanceolate-ovate, not ovate leaves. The pappus of the new plant 

 is scarcely longer than the involucral bracts, in Sivartziana it is 

 conspicuously so. The corolla lobes in alba are thrice shorter 

 than the tube, in Sivartziana " lobis breviter oblongis erectis tubo 

 toto 5-6plo brevioribus." 



The new plant differs from both the older ones in having a sub- 

 tending bractlet that much exceeds the pedicel. 



Norman Taylor 

 New York Botanicai. Garden. 



REVIEWS 



DeVries' Plant Breeding t 



This work will be eagerly read by the scientific world and the 

 general public because of the remarkable achievements of Nils- 

 son (made public now for the first time) and also for the impartial 

 and appreciative account of Burbank's work. No less important 

 is the discussion of the principles that underlie plant breeding. 



In 1901 Nilsson became director of a private company that 

 had been established in 1886 for the improvement of various 

 agricultural crops in Sweden that were slowly but manifestly de- 



* Urban, I. Symbolae Antillanae seu fundamenta Florae Indiae Occidentalis. 

 5 : 212. 1907. 



f DeVries, Hugo. Plant Breeding. Comments on the experiments of Nilsson 

 and Burbank. 8vo. vi -|- 360. / 1-114. The Open Court Publishing Company. 

 Chicago and London. 1907. 



