84 Scientific Intelligence. 



necessity of separating the genus Potala from Ammannia ; for, 

 unfortunately, the only species met with in the United States (A. 

 ramosior X.), has an Ammannia-like habit, which is not to be 

 observed in the 31 other species of RotalcC Our bias, accord- 

 ingly is against the separation. The restoration of Didiplis to 

 Peplis may be more readily acceded to. It may be hoped that 

 the species of Lythrum are well discriminated, also the genera 

 Nesma, PTeimia, and Decodon. But we must enter a protest 

 against the making of a new name, Cuphea petiolata, Koehne, for 

 C. viscosissima, J acq. It legitimately follows from the Laws of 

 Nomenclature which Dr. Koehne generally adopts, that no new 

 name should be made when there is already a fit one, that the 

 earliest name under the proper genus should stand, notwithstand- 

 ing any older specific name under some other genus. This has 

 been well argued by Bentham, and w r e supposed that the gen- 

 eral practice was conforming to it. a. g. 



5. Monographie der Gattung Clematis von Dr. Otto Kuntze 

 {Separatabzug cms den Verhandl. Botan. Vereins, Brandenburg, 

 xxvi.) Berlin, 1885, pp. 83-202, 8vo. — There are two opposite 

 extremes of departure from the Linnsean idea of species which are 

 exemplified in recent phytography. One is that of Gardoger, 

 who multiplies the European Roses into a thousand and more of 

 species. Of the other extreme Dr. Kuntze is a type. For instance, 

 in the present elaborate essay, he reduces Clematis Virginiana, 

 ligusticifolia, Catesbeyana and Drmnmondii to forms of C. dio- 

 ica; also C. reticulata as well as C. coccinea to C. Viorna, adding 

 moreover Lavallee's C. Sargenti, which belongs to C. Pitcheri, 

 which again is referred to the C. cordata of Sims. Then, under the 

 Old World C. Viticella he assemoles C. crispa and C. Walteri, even 

 under the same subspecies, and will still have it that the erroneous 

 C. crispa of DeCandolle, which he well refers to his var. Cam- 



paniflora is North American as well as S. European. The only 

 reason for so attributing it is that it has been cultivated under 

 the false name of C. crispa, and the genuine C. crispa L. came 

 from North America. Also C. verticillaris is referred to C. 

 cdpina, and C. ochroleuca as well as C. Fremontii to C. integri- 

 folia ! To compensate for which extraordinary unions, Dr. Kuntze 

 has made a new species, C. ptseudo-atragene, of part of the North 

 American C. alpina of our botanists (with the habitats Oregon, 

 Colorado, New York, Canada, and with a var. psendo-cdpina for 

 Fendler's New Mexican specimens), while he gives us C. alpina, 

 typica from Ly ell's and Bourgeau's collections. a. g. 



6. Pecherches Anatomiques sur les Organes Vegetatifs de 

 V Urtica dioica ; par A. Gravis, D.S. Nat., etc. Bruxelles, 1885. 

 pp. 256, tab. 23, 4to. — One of the Memoires courronnes of the 

 Royal Academy of Sciences of Belgium, a goodly volume, as it 

 were, devoted to the anatomy of the vegetative organs of the com- 

 mon Nettle, thus taken as a basis for a general and comparative 

 study of the Urticacece. This exhaustive work was done in the 

 botanical laboratory of the faculty of sciences of the University of 



