described. Likewise among Mr. Lemmon's ferns, are several new 



In Oregon, Professor G. H. Collier, of Eugene City, has just 

 published a " List of the trees of Oregon," an eight page pamph- 

 let, giving "the maximum observed heightand diameter" of fifty- 

 seven trees, with the local names and occasional remarks as to 

 habitat or economic uses. Thomas Howell, of Arthur, Oregon, 

 has also issued a "Catalogue of the Plants of Oregon" which, 

 although defective in some particulars, is valuable as being based 

 upon actual collections. 



The last thing we have from our western botanists is Professor 

 Rattan's third and much enlarged and improved edition of his 

 " Popular California Flora." The introductory lessons contain 

 many fresh notes and illustrations that are interesting, as for 

 example, that on the germination of the big-root (Megdrrhiza) 

 on p. ix, and one on the germination of lupines on p. x. The 

 Flora proper furnishes a handy manual for the study of the com- 

 moner and easier plants of Central California. 



Gray's "Contributions to North American Botany." — In this 

 we have : I. Studies of Aster and Solidago in the older herbaria, 

 and, n. Characters of the new plants of certain recent collections, 

 mainly in Arizona and adjacent regions. The first is of great in- 

 terest to North American botanists, as it is the result of Dr. 

 Grav's studies in the great herbaria of the old world, during his 

 recent visit to England and the continent of Europe. The intro- 

 ductory paragraph is so suggestive that we reproduce it here 



" Aster and Solidago in North America, like Hieracium in Eu- 

 rope, are among the larger and doubtless the most intractable gen- 

 era of the great order to which they belong. In these two 

 genera, along with much uncertainu iu'th limitation of the spe- 

 cies as they occur in nature, there is an added difficulty growing 

 out of the fact that many of the earlier ones were founded upon 

 cultivated plants, some of which had already been long in the 

 gardens, where they have undergone such changes that it has not 

 been easy, and in several cases not yet possible, to'identify them with 

 wild originals. Late flowering Compositae, and Asters' especially, 

 are apt to alter their appearance under cultivation in European 



assure normal and complete development, and upon many the 

 difference in climate and exposure seems to tell in unusual meas- 

 ure upon the ramification, inflorescence and involucral bracts, 

 which afford principal and comparatively stable characters to the 

 species as we find them in their native haunts. I am not very 

 confident of the success of my prolonged endeavors to put these 

 genera into proper order and to fix the nomenclature of the older 

 species; and in certain groups absolute or practical definition ot 



