BOTANY. 627 
characterized the first, and which places the author, in his mas- 
terly grasp of the subject, foremost among the living writers on 
Coleoptera. 
Each family of beetles is fully characterized, with detailed de- 
scriptions of the subfamilies, tribes, and brief diagnoses of all the 
genera, together with interesting remarks of a general nature. 
The work when completed will necessarily be a complement as 
well as supplement of Lacordaire’s famous “Genera of Coleop- ` 
tera,” and will invite the attention of European entomologists, 
while in America it will be the Coleopterist’s vade mecum. 
New Nort American BEEtLEs.*—Dr. LeConte, in this second 
part of ‘* New Species of North American Coleoptera,” describes 
eighty-nine new species of beetles, mostly from the Pacific coast. 
A number of new genera are also characterized. 
BOTANY. 
FLoweRING or ApLecTRuM.— With us the flowering of Aplec- 
trum hyemale Nutt. appears to be an exceedingly rare event; so 
much so, that close watching of the plant in our woods, for sev- 
eral years, on my part, has been unrewarded by a single instance 
of its blossoming. The experience of others corroborates the 
“conclusion that it is a shy bloomer, at least in Michigan. I am 
anxious for information on the point referred to, as regards 
other localities. A friend once succeeded in obtaining the flowers 
by taking up the plants in the spring, and keeping them in saucers 
of the rich black mould which the Aplectrum loves so well, thor- 
oughly moistened. A plant which I once potted sent up a fine 
Scape, several inches high, but, owing to the want of proper care 
during my absence from home, it did not come to perfection. 
The Aplectrum was formerly well represented in the woods 
north of Detroit; but the encroachment of the city is fast destroy- 
ing the station which was remarkable for the abundance of this 
rather scarce plant. However, it is, even now, far from exhausted. 
On the 20th of April, 1873, I took from a space about ten feet 
Square, in a piece of beech woods, thirty of these plants, which I 
*New Species of North e ABETE Prepared for the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion by John L. LeConte, M.D. oe Miscellaneous Collections (264), 
Washington, May-June, 1873. By om 
