508 General Notes. [June, 



actual discoveries in botany are not many, as the rare power he 

 possessed of making everything have a meaning. He added 

 many fold to the pleasures of study by teaching us how to look 

 in a new direction for the reasons for things. The colors, odors, 

 forms, the irregularities of flowers are no longer but so many 

 variations for tickling our sense organs. It may be a humiliating 

 lesson to learn, but close observation compels us to acknowledge 

 that the fine colors and forms, and the sweet odors have no neces- 

 sary relation to us, and that had man never come into existence, 

 they would still have been just as beautiful and just as fragrant as 

 they are now. 



In the domain of systematic botany, the great law of the modi- 

 fication of species is slowly (as was to be expected, Mr. Darwin 

 not being a systematist) bringing about a complete revision of 

 classification. Cohn's, Sachs', Caruel's, De Bary's and Gobi's 

 recent systems are all attempts to bring out the genetic relation- 

 ship of the various groups, which are considered to have de- 

 scended from more primitive forms. The parasites and sapro- 

 phytes need no longer be placed by themselves in a group of 

 exceptional plants, but find their proper places as the degraded 

 members of various groups of chlorophyll bearing plants. Once 

 granted the origin of species by means of natural selection, and 

 its full import understood and acknowledged, a mutual relation is 

 seen to exist between one group and another, a relation which is 

 much more than that of mere structural similarity. Under the 

 influence of the Darwinian method, the vegetable kingdom is as- 

 suming a shape in our classifications, which shows a gradually 

 in:reasing complexity, a gradual modification and differ, niiahon 

 as we pass from the slime molds to the flowering plants. The 

 flower of the phanerogam is not wholly phanerogamic, it had its 

 beginnings away down among the simple pond-scums, and is but 

 the last link in a chain extending throughout almost the whole 

 plant world. 



Botanical Notes.— We see it announced that Williams & 

 Norgate, of London, are to issue a work by Dr. M. C. Cooke, en- 

 titled " British Fresh Water Algae, exclusive of Desmide?e and 



Diatomaceae." Parrish Brothers, of San Bernardino, California, 



offer sets of the plants of Southern California. The specimens 

 are beautifully prepared, and are well worthy of finding place in 



any herbarium. The first fascicle of* N. A. Gramineae," under 



preparation by F. Lamson Scribner. of Girard College, Philadel- 

 phia, is to be issued soon. Collectors of the Gramineae can a<d 

 the prosecution of this work by addressing the author as above. 



The manual of North American Lichens, recently published 



by S. E. Cassino, of Boston, has unfortunately not been stereo- 

 typed, which is much to be regretted, as the edition will, as a con- 

 sequence, soon be out of print. M. S. Bebb, in the March Bo- 



