Botany and Zoology. 235 



feet. He supposes that it has not shown the same readiness to 

 establish itself in North America. This is true of the Atlantic 

 but not of the Pacific side. In California and the adjacent dis- 

 tricts the Alfilaria, as it is popularly called, has taken such fall 

 possession that we can hardly convince even the botanists that it 

 is an introduced plant. The authors of the Botany of California 

 speak of it as "more decidedly and widely at home throughout 

 the interior than any other introduced plant, and, according to 

 much testimony, it was as common throughout California early 

 in the present century as now. . . It is a valuable and nutritious- 

 forage plant, reputed to impart an excellent flavor to milk and 

 butter." At Santa Barbara and other parts of southern California, 

 it is used for lawns around dwellings, and it seems to be the only 

 resort. It makes a passable substitute for grass so long as the 

 rainy season lasts or irrigation is kept up. It must have been 

 brought in with the earliest cattle, and have found on the Pacific 

 coast a perfectly suitable climate. 



Caldasia of Lagasca, Mr. Ball shows us, must be restored as. 

 the name of the genus named Oreomyrrhis by Endlicher. 



Helbunium, upon a general survey of the species, will in our 

 opinion be found quite untenable as a genus. 



JPhacelia circinata, which extends almost from one end to the 

 other of the American continent, is said to be singularly constant, 

 exhibiting no marked varieties. But we have in North America 

 a remarkable diversity of forms, the extremes of which, by them- 

 selves, no botanist would refer to one species, although inter- 

 mediate forms inextricably combine them. a. g. 



2. J. C. Lecotee, Monographie du Genre Thalictntm. Gand. 

 1885, pp. 249, 8vo, tab. i-v. — This monograph makes a large 

 part of the 24th volume of the Bulletin de la Societe Royale de 

 Botanique de Belgique, in which the larger part was published 

 early in 1885, the remainder in January, 1886. Botanists may be 

 glad to know that it is also issued as a separate volume (for 12 

 francs) ; and may join in our regret that the original pagination 

 is not preserved, nor in any way indicated, nor, indeed, do we 

 find any indication in the separate issue that the author's work 

 was published by the Royal Botanical Society of Belgium. This 

 seems hardly fair to the Society ; and the new paging without 

 reference to that of the Bulletin gives biblographical trouble ; for 

 some will cite from the Bulletin, as they ought, and others from 

 the separate issue. 



The monograph is a laborious and faithful piece of work. We 

 have only a small part of the genus in North America, in fact 

 barely a dozen species out of the 79. And we now count Ane- 

 monella of Spach (Thalictrum anemonides), as a distinct genus of 

 a single species. But our few Thalictra are encumbered with 

 many difficulties, both in the limitation of the forms and in no- 

 menclature. In respect to them M. Lecoyer's investigations in the 

 herbaria have much helped out our own notes made at various 

 times. He confirms the impression we had formed from an in- 



