December 5, 1888.] 



Garden and Forest. 



491 



[This question cannot be answered more clearly than by 

 quoting the following extract from the Code of Nomencla- 

 ture adopted by the American Ornithologists' Union, and as 

 applicable to botanical as to zoological names : 



" In Latinizing proper names, the simplest rule appears 

 to be to use the termination -us, genitive-/, when the name 

 ends with a consonant ; . . . and -ms, gen. -«, when 

 it ends with a vowel, as La/rei'/Ze, Lafreillii, etc. Since 

 proper names for species, however, are used mainly — and 

 we recommend that they be so used exclusively — in the 

 possessive case, a still simpler and now generally adopted 

 rule is to add an i to the name ; as La/reille, Latreillei ; 

 Hale, Halei: Baird, Bairdi ; but euphony may in some in- 

 stances require the fuller form, and here, as in many other 

 instances, is the case where an author has the opportunity 

 of displaying his good taste." 



The habit of Latinizing the names of garden varieties of 

 plants — whether the result of natural variation or of arti- 

 iicial hybridization — is to be deplored. A much more sim- 

 ple and appropriate method is to use an English substantive 

 to designate such plants, whether it be the name of the 

 individual who originated or made known the variety, or 

 otherwise. The general adoption of such a system of 

 naming garden plants would simplify enormously the con- 

 fusion which now exists in the nomenclature of garden 

 botany. — Ed.] 



Recent Puljlications. 



A Provisional Host-Index of the Fungi of the United States. 

 By W. G. Farlow and A. B. Seymour. Part I. Po/ypetater. 

 Cambridge. August, 1888. Privately printed. 



American mycologists and all students of American Fungi 

 will find much needed assistance in this catalogue, which its 

 authors have prepared and printed in the belief " that an 

 appro.ximately complete list of our parasitic species and their 

 hosts would aid materially in the advance toward a more 

 accurate study of our mycological flora, and would tend to 

 lessen the amount of indiscriminate species-making which 

 has already become a serious evil " — a result certainly most 

 devoutly to be prayed for by all Ijotanists. The host plants 

 are grouped liy families according- to the system adopted in 

 the "Genera Plantaruni" of Hooker and Bentham, genera and 

 species being arranged alphabetically in each family and 

 each species being followed by a list of the parasitic Fungi 

 found upon it. 



Diagnoses Plantaruni novaruni .-Isiatieuni, by C. J. Maxi- 

 mowicz, extracted from the Bulletin of the Imperial Academy 

 of Sciences of St. Petersburg. The seventli part of this work, 

 which is invaluable to all students of the botany of the coun- 

 tries of eastern Asia, and more especially of Japan, has 

 recently appeared. It contains descriptive and critical 

 remarks upon several new or imperfectly known species, an 

 enumeration of the species of Illiciuni, Scorzonera, Androsace 

 and Gratiola. An accoimt of the large and widely distributed 

 genus Pediciilaris, into whicli are admitted nearly 250 species, 

 occupies a very considerable part of the present issue, and 

 is the most complete and compreliensive which has yet 

 appeared. 



A Synopsis of the Medieal Bofanv of the United States, Ijy 

 J. W. Carter, St. Louis, 1888. 



This is a list of the plants of North America whicli enter 

 more or less regularly into the American PharmacopoE'ia. 

 There are, the author tells us in his preface, 1,300 species and 

 varieties of such plants, divided among 140 natural families 

 and 620 genera. The list of these plants is published without 

 characters or geograpliical distribution, and with the very 

 briefest possible allusion to their medicinal properties, and it 

 contains apparently no information not found in recent edi- 

 tions of the standard American Dispensatories, although the 

 compact grouping of the species under the different genera 

 will Ije found, perhaps, an aid to ready reference. 



Recent Plant Portraits. 



Botanical Magazine, November. 



Ph.^jus Wallichii, t. 7023; one of the stateliest and largest 

 flowered of all Orchids, widely distributed in the tropical 

 portions of southern India, and not rare in cultivation. 

 The flowers vary from chocolate-brown to pale primrose 

 color. 



Plumus fragrans, /. 7024; a small Chilian tree of little orna- 

 mental value, but remarkable for the delicious fragrance of 

 its foliage and wood. It is valued in Chili for charcoal mak- 

 ing, the wood being considered superior for that purpose to 

 that of any native tree. The dried leaves and twigs are occa- 

 sionally used medicinally as a stimulant. The bark is used in 

 tanning and the aromatic fruit is edible. Plumus belongs 

 to the small order, Moniniiacece, the plants of which are 

 found in tropical America and Asia, Australia and tropical 

 Africa. 



Iris Koroi.kowi, t. 7025; both the type and a bright lilac- 

 purple flowered variety (var. eoncolor) of this very handsome 

 Turkestan Iris are figured. 



Calanthe striata, t. 7026 ; a native of Japan. The sepals 

 and petals are cinnamon-ljrown with golden edges, internally, 

 golden yellow on the outer surface. 



Agave Elemeetiana, t. 7025; forming, with A. attenuata, 

 a peculiar section of the genus, with broad, entire soft leaves. 

 It is a native of Me.xico and has been in cultivation for nearly a 

 cjuarter of a century. 



/ESCULUS TURBINATA, Revue Horticole, November ist, Figs. 

 120-124; M- Andre here figures and describes the fruit of this 

 interesting Japanese plant from the specimen in the ^Irbore- 

 tum Segrezianum, which is believed to have been the first 

 plant in Europe to produce fruit. AZ. turbiiiata, as it appears 

 at Segrez, is a small, low stemmed, round headed tree, of 

 compact haljit, with leaves not unlike those of the common 

 Horse-Chestnut. They are paler, however, on the lower 

 surface, upon which the veins are more prominent. The 

 fruit is sub-spherical, flattened on the upper surface, slightly or 

 not at all turbinate, barely more than an inch in diameter, 

 and produced three or four together in short, stout-stemmed 

 racemes. The Horse-Chestnuts of eastern Asia, of whicli 

 three are described, are still very imperfectly known. 



DiosPYROS Virginiana, Gardeners' Chronicle, November 

 3d ; a portrait of the old and very fine specimen growing in 

 the Royal Gardens at Kew, and believed to have been pre- 

 sented to George III. by Archibald, Duke of Argyle, " the tree- 

 monger." In another illustration a piece of the bark of the 

 Persimmon is represented in a most admirable and satisfac- 

 tory manner. 



Meetings of Societies. 



Pennsylvania Forestry Association. 



'T^HE annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Forestry Asso- 

 -'- elation was held in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening, 

 November 27th. The report of the Council of the Associa- 

 tion was a full and interesting review of the work of the 

 Association and of the efforts for the advancement of for- 

 estry throughout the country. Among the facts set forth 

 were these: The membership has increased to 450. Twentv- 

 five counties are represented. The new members have been 

 interested and liberal. With a view to employing a compe- 

 tent agent to deliver lectures on Forestry throughout the 

 state, it was decided to raise a fund of $5,000, and si.xteen 

 members have contributed $440. Some progress was re- 

 ported in the movement to convert certain small open spaces 

 of Philadelphia into city parks. Encouraging interest has 

 lieen manifested in the iVIichau.x course of lectures, deliv- 

 ered by Professor Rolhi-ock on "Trees from Florida to 

 Maine." It is proposed to publish these, with illustrations, 

 in Forest Leaves, the journal of the Association. There was 

 in.creased observance of the spring Arbor Day by the public 

 schools in tree and vine planting ; the autumn day was im- 

 proved by in-door instruction. 



The Treasurer reported $1,181.60 as tlie amount rcceivcLl 

 during the year. An address to the American Forestry Con- 

 gress at Atlanta was adopted, and it was resolved that the 

 Council be empowered to send a representative to the Con- 

 gress. A paper on " Forest-Planting in Virginia," by j\lr. 

 Burnet Landreth, proved to be a practical and valuable 

 record of an experience of eighteen years in tree-planting on 

 a 5, coo-acre tract in tide-water Virginia. It was decided to 

 publish the address and give it wide circulation. 



Governor Beaver entered the hall just as the exercises 

 were closing, and expressed profound interest in the condi- 

 tion and preservation of the forest area of the state, and 

 spoke of his appointment of a Commission to attend the 

 National Congress at Atlanta. 



The officers chosen for the year were : President, Burnet 

 Landreth ; Vice-Presidents, John Birkcnbine, Thomas J. 

 Edge and Jeremiah S. Hess ; Secretary, Mrs. J. P. Lundv ; 

 Treasurer, Charles E. Pancoast; Council at large, Mrs. Brinton 

 Coxe, John P. Lundy, D.D., and Thomas H. Montgomery. 



