Botany and Zoology. 248 



masters of BCientifio nomenclature; and an examination of this 

 liook shows that these views have been faithfully and judiciously 

 followed. Witness the authors 1 golden silence respecting such 

 names as Anthophyta, Castalia, unifolium and fficoria. 



In describing the grasses the organs which we have learned to 

 call the outer and inner palete are respectively termed flowering 

 (flume and /><//> t. This change is in accordance with the usage of 

 the Genera Plantarum, and of the ROoky .Mountain Flora, and 

 yet it hardly seems to be in the direction of simpler and clearer 

 language. The homologies of the flower of grasses are still some- 

 what unsettled, and the old terms have done such good service in 

 t times, that one would think they might be trusted a little 

 srer. 



The Gymnosperms keep their old position at the end of the 

 exogenous class, and it is very certain that Dr. Gray would never 

 have consented to any different place for them. 



At the end of the text is a table of orders, with the number of 

 genera and species, native and introduced, the exotic species being 

 almost an eighth of the whole. Then follows a glossary of ten 

 pages, giving brief but sufficient explanations of about seven hun- 

 dred technical terms. In the Index one is glad to find the names 

 of the species of the genera Garex, Aster and Solidago. The 

 twenty-five plates consist of the old twenty plates of the fifth 

 edition, with the addition of one new plate of grasses, and four 

 plates of HepaticcB, three of them borrowed from the edition of 

 1857, and o*ne entirely new. d. c. e. 



2. On the Roots of Saprophytes. — F. Johow in his memoir 

 •on Humus-plants free from Chlorophyll, (Pringsheim's Jahr- 

 bucher, vol. xx, p. 488) gives an interesting account of the organs 

 of these peculiar plants. The roots and root-like structures are 

 classified in a convenient manner, but the intermediate forms 

 break dow T n all sharp lines of demarcation. The range of plants 

 with saprophytic absorptive organs is larger than is usually 

 -apposed. The orders Orchidaceae, Burmanniaceae, and Ericaceae 

 furnish the more numerous examples, after which comes the 

 order Sentianaceae. In every case the development of the root 



-tern is slight so far as its superficial exposure is concerned, in 

 some instances there is almost a complete reduction. The under- 

 ground organs have the power of forming buds which, after their 

 unfolding, may be practically isolated from the parent stock. 

 And, as examples cited by Drude and Irmisch show, some of 

 there adaptations secure comparative immunity of the species 

 from the destructive effects which would follow if propagation 

 depended on the seeds alone. As might be suspected, the 

 mechanical system in all these underground structures is of the 

 least possible complexity. <■. l. g. 



3. Genesis of the Arietidce / by Alpheus Hyatt. 238 pp. 4to, 

 with 14 plates, Memoirs Mas. Comp. Zool., vol. xvi, no. 3. Pub- 

 lished in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution. — This 

 memoir is the result of many years of work and thought, and 



