Botany and Zoology. 23T 



phyllum, etc. This does not exclude such fossils from the genus, 

 while it does indicate the actual uncertainty. Nathorst adds a 

 note to deprecate the opposition which may be raised against the 

 admission of such names when the prefix happens to be Latin, 

 or at least not Greek; but he fortifies his ground with DeCan- 

 dolle's apposite remark that such hybrids are quite as good as 

 bureaucracy, centimeter, decimeter, and the like. Moreover, when 

 leaf -imprints from widely separated localities apparently belong to 

 the same species, yet with some difference, it is better to have 

 this difference indicated in the nomenclature by making the name 

 ternary ; e. g. Acer trilobatum Japonicum. Figures of fossil leaves 

 which represent outlines only, without indications of the exact 

 nervation, are nearly useless for classificatory purposes. All leaf- 

 impressions should be carefully figured, photographically or other- 

 wise : but those that are really not determinable should not be 

 named at all. They may be compared and studied as well with- 

 out names as with them ; and while nameless they are not mis- 

 leading. A. G. 



4. Witteock, Erythrww Exsiccator. Fasc. II, 1885. — This is 

 issued in the same sumptuous style as the first part. We see 

 with gratification that the appeal to American botanists for ma- 

 terial begins to find response. In this volume, of 16 sheets, con- 

 taining species No. 13 to No. 25, the following are N. American. 

 Erythraia Douglasii in a typical state, E. nudicatdis in the same, 

 E. calycosa, var. Arizonica, E. vennsta, and a new one named 

 E. curvistaminea, which the author brings near to E. Douglasii, 

 and others may identify with that species. For the curvature of 

 the stamens is probably an incident of the dichogamy, in the 

 manner of Sabbat ia, which all the large-flowered North American 

 species exhibit. Attention is called to this in the Synoptical Flora, 

 vol. 2, part 1, second edition, p. 405. The American contributors 

 to this fasciculus, Messrs. Pringle, Suksdorf, and Orcutt, are 

 mentioned on the title-page. We have still several species and 

 forms which ought to be represented in this authentic illustration 

 of a difficult genus. a. g. 



5. F. Buchenau, in Engler's Bot. Jahrbiicher, vol. vii, 1885, 

 has published a critical synopsis of the European .Juncacece, partly 

 with reference to Nyman's Conspectus, and with full indications 

 of the principal European exsiccatse. Dr. Buchenau is the acknow- 

 ledged master of this subject, and his views concern several of our 

 American species as well. a. g. 



6. Ferdinand Pax, in the same fasciculus of Engler's Jahr- 

 biicher, having already discussed the general structure and mor- 

 phology of the Maple genus, has now given us the first part of his 

 monograph, comprising four of his fourteen sections, the Rubra, 

 Spicata, Palmata, and Trifoliata. We shall probably pass the 

 work in review when it is all published. Meanwhile, pace Pad, 

 we have small belief in the two species near A. rubrum which he 

 has characterized from old herbarium specimens collected by 

 Kinn, and preserved in the Berlin herbarium. a. g. 



