1880. | in the United States in the year 1879. 869 
plants; J. F. James’ “ Catalogue of the Flowering Plants, Ferns 
and Fungi growing in the vicinity of Cincinnati,” with 869 flow- 
ering plants; ‘Colorado Plants,” a list of plants collected in 
Central and Southern Colorado, by I. C. Martindale, published in 
the November NATURALIST, with notes upon the rarer species ; 
“ Ballast Plants in New York city and its vicinity,’ by Addison 
Brown, in the November Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, enumerating 258 
species, 
Here must be mentioned the fine work by Thomas Meehan, 
“ The Native Flowers and Ferns of the United States,” consisting 
of chromo-lithographs with explanatory letter-press. This work 
continued to be issued in parts through the year. 
Baron H. F. A. Eggers’ “ Flora of the St. Croix and Virgin 
Islands,” published in Bull. U. S. Nat. Museum, should probably 
be noticed here. It enumerates 977 flowering plants. 
C. Geographical and Geological——Under the title of ‘A Visit 
to the Shell islands of Florida,’ A. H. Curtiss, in the Febru- 
ary, March and May numbers of the Botanical Gazette, gives an 
interesting account of the vegetation of these little-visited islands. 
Much like this also is J. H. Redfield’s “ Notes of a Botanical Ex- ' 
cursion into North Carolina,” in the July and August numbers of 
the Bull. Torr. Bot. Club. In the party were Dr. Gray, Prof. Sar- 
gent, Mr. Canby and others, and one important object of the 
excursion was the finding of more specimens of Shortia. 
“ The Forests of Central Nevada, with some remarks on those 
of the Adjacent Regions,” by Prof. C. S. Sargent, in the June 
Am. Four. Sci. and Aris, contains notes upon the trees of the 
region, and comparative lists of the ligneous floras of the Rocky 
mountains, the Nevada and the Sierra Nevada regions. Much 
like the foregoing in treatment, but referring to very different 
plants, is Dr. Gray’s paper, “ The Pertinacity and Predominance 
of Weeds,” in the September Am. Four. Sci. and Arts. 
In the Bulletin of the U. S. Geol. and Geographical Survey, 
Vol. v, W. H. Holmes contributes an interesting article on the 
“Fossil Forests of the Volcanic, Tertiary Formations of the Yel- 
lowstone National Park.” In some places the aggregate thick- 
ness of the strata reaches more than one vertical mile (5500 feet), 
and throughout these strata are found vast numbers of silicified 
remains of tree trunks. The article is accompanied by a figure 
of the north face of Amethyst mountain, showing a precipice 
composed of upwards of two thousand feet of strata. 
