478 Scientific Intelligence. 



training, the biological laboratory offers the most needful train- 

 ing from the beginning. But it may be questioned whether, for 

 common education, there is not a tendency to introduce histology 

 too early into the course; also to treat it too technically and so 

 to say Germanically. This tendency is most natural under the 

 circumstances ; but as our writers and teachers grow stronger in 

 their grasp, they may be expected to discard a deal of super- 

 fluous terminology, — some wholly superfluous, more of it unnec- 

 essary for the occasion. Among these terms perhaps the most 

 abhorrent are those (such as pollen-spores) which come from 

 taking Cryptogamia as the norm, and imposing its terminology 

 upon Phanerogamia. Nomenclature is one thing: homology is 

 another. We do not usually say " stamen-leaves " and the like. 

 The Germans of our day excel in investigation and supply 

 excellent material. But they seem to lack the gift of exposition 

 and the sense of proportion ; and so, for educational purposes, 

 their writings need something more than translation. 



The remarks we have been led into are not specially apropos 

 to the present little book, which is a really commendable one for 

 its purpose. a. g. 



2. Japanese Potany. — The sixth fascicle of Diagnosis Plan- 

 tarum Kovarum Asiaticarum, by Dr. Maximo wicz, of St. Peters- 

 burgh, issued in February, 1886, contains several Japanese plants, 

 communicated with drawings, and named by ltd Tokutaro. 

 Among them is " Podophyllum Japonicum, Pto" of which, as we 

 understand, Maximowicz has seen a drawing only of the flower- 

 ing plant, and analytical figures. It differs from other species of 

 the genus in having ternate leaves, is 6-petalous and 6-androus; 

 and, as the dehiscence of the anthers is not made out, the genus 

 is quite uncertain. There is also another species from Japan, so 

 very like our own P. peltatum that Maximowicz so names it, with 

 a mark of doubt, because it has only six stamens. Formerly only 

 our single American species was known ; now we have indica- 

 tions of four or five East Asian and Himalayan species. Other 

 notable plants described in this paper are such as a new Micro- 

 rhaninns from Japan and China; and Platypholis, a genus from 

 Bonin Islands near to Conopholis. In a review of the genus 

 Gleditschia, Dr. Maximowicz shows that two Chinese species go 

 far to invalidate Gymnocladus, a genus which we had supposed 

 was most distinct. a. g. 



3. American Pesmidiece. — Bidragtill Amerikas Pesmidie-Jfora, 

 of G. Lagerheim, is the title of a well-elaborated paper, sepa- 

 rately issued from the Proceedings of the Royal Academy of 

 Science of Stockholm, xlii, No. 7, published at the close of the 

 last year. A good share of the specimens here studied and sys- 

 tematically enumerated are said to have been derived from the 

 bladders of Utricidarice preserved in herbaria, notably those of 

 the Stockholm Museum and at Upsala. The author's method of 

 preparation is detailed in the Bot. Centralblatt, xviii, No. 19, 

 1884. His principal habitats are Cuba, Georgia, and Tewksbury, 



