680 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. | [Vor. XXXIV. 
organisms producing these changes, bacteria, mould fungi, and yeasts, 
are discussed, chiefly from the standpoint of their morphology and 
physiology. The most important alcohol-producing organisms are 
treated in some detail. Here, as throughout the book, the work of 
Hansen is cited at great length. 
Since the work is intended for the brewer and the distiller as well 
as for the student of the purely scientific side of the subject, much 
of brewery and distillery technique finds place. As the standpoint 
of the author is decidedly that of the morphologist, the chemical 
side of fermentation is disposed of in the briefest manner. On the 
whole, the book gives a very useful account of the subject as seen 
from the standpoint of an enthusiastic disciple of Hansen. A fairly 
complete bibliography of the subject unfortunately closes the book. 
It is difficult to explain why a work of this scope, intended for fre- 
quent reference, should utterly lack an index, but such is the case. 
Notes.— Professor Rowlee begins the publication of a series of 
notes on North American willows in the May number of the Buletin 
of the Torrey Club, the first part dealing with the Longifolize, of which 
twelve species are recognized, three of them, as well as several vari- 
eties, being considered new to science. Gratification is expressed at 
the necessity that has been found of restoring all of Nuttall’s species. 
The taxonomic value of the staminate flowers of some species of 
Quercus is shown by Professor Rowlee and Miss Nichols in the 
Botanical Gazette for May. 
The Lycopodiaceez of the United States are found in review by 
Lloyd and Underwood in the Butletin of the Torrey Club for April. 
Dr. Spegazzini, in the March number of the Anales de la Sociedad 
Cientifica Argentina, gives some interesting notes on the irritability of 
the stamens of certain cacti, the extra floral nectar glands of Opuntia 
monacantha, and the narcotic properties of the floral nectar of Echin- 
ocactus gibbosus. 
Professor Nelson's active study of the Wyoming flora leads to the 
revision of the cormose-rooted Rocky Mountain claytonias in the 
Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club for May, in which he further 
publishes a considerable number of new species of various groups. 
In No. 5 of the Contributions from the New York Botanical Garden 
Dr. Rydberg begins a series of studies on the Rocky Mountain flora, 
the first number of which deals with certain groups of Senecio. 
