166 Scientific Intelligence. 



4. Contributions to American Botany, XII ; by Sereno Wat- 

 son. Extr. Proc. Am. Acad., xx. Feb. 21, 1885, pp. 324-374, 

 with a full index. — This last particular is one of the wood points 

 of Dr. Watson's papers, an extra finish which botanists are thank- 

 ful for, none the less because they cannot generally expect it. A 

 most important " contribution " indeed, one in which the essential 

 results of very prolonged study and critical toil are condensed 

 into less than thirty pages, is the History and Revision of the 

 Roses of North America. The "History" any one can read with 

 interest; the "Synopsis of Species" (18 in number, which European 

 treatment might have quadrupled, and which "the extreme of 

 possible reduction " might condense into nine) presents the botan- 

 ist with a convenient view of the leading differential characters; 

 then we have, under proper divisions, sufficiently detailed descrip- 

 tions, habitat, and a particular mention of localities and col- 

 lectors. Thanks to our botanists and curators, nearly all the 

 principal herbarium-material in the country was in the mono- 

 grapher's hands, and a part of that in the Gray herbarium had 

 previously been examined by Crepin in Belgium. Let us hope 

 that our Roses may now be fairly well and readily understood by 

 our botanists, that the attention which, with such help, they will 

 generally receive may lessen rather than increase the remaining 

 doubts and ambiguities, and that this judicious monograph may do 

 its part in preserving our American rhodology from the fearful 

 state which that of the Old World presents. 



The other article of the present contribution consists of '■''De- 

 scriptions of some New Species of Plants, chiefly from our 

 Western Territories" which have recently been brought to light 

 by our various zealous collectors, and which are examined in the 

 course of preparation of the Flora of North America. A few 

 already published plants are mentioned. Among them is Atamis- 

 quea emarginata of Miers, a rare Capparideous shrub of a pecu- 

 liar genus, which Miers discovered in the province of Mendoza, 

 in about the same latitude in the southern hemisphere that Mr. 

 Pringle found it in the northern, namely in the northwestern 

 borders of the Mexican State of Sonora. As far as we can see 

 there is no difference between the specimens from these widely 

 disjoined stations, the only two known. Dr. Kellogg's (Enothera 

 arborea, which he long ago figured in the Hesperian is taken up 

 and described aright as Hauya Californica. It would have been 

 better to follow the general rule of retaining the original specific 

 name, and also to have avoided " Californica." For, although 

 the country which this shrub inhabits was the original California, 

 it is not our California. 



Tetracoccus, the only new genus described in this paper is inter- 

 esting as being the last plant studied and named by Engelmann. 

 It was discovered by Dr. Parry in Lower California, in the winter 

 of 1883, but male flowers and mature fruit were obtained by his 

 young friend, Charles R. Orcutt, a year and a half later. Both 

 sent materials to the Gray Herbarium, and it was supposed that 



