No. 374.] REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 131 
which several nominal varieties of this character are described ; 
descriptions of new Californian species belonging to the genera Iris, 
Montia, and Newberrya ; and a revision of the Manzanitas of Mt. 
Tamalpais, in which, because of the inadequacy of printed descrip- 
tions and other difficulties, three forms that seem undescribed are 
described and named as distinct species, while it is left to some 
future monographer of the genus to assign “ definite limits, if that 
be possible in so polymorphous a genus, which continually suggests 
hybridization or a very active and unlimited tendency to vary.” 
Pittonia.— In the seventeenth part of volume three of this 
work,’ which appears at irregular intervals, Professor Greene writes 
on new species of Eriogonum; the hop trefoils, for which he takes 
up Desvaux’s name Chrysaspis; a second list of corrections in 
nomenclature, in which he takes up Necker’s name Aragallus for a 
large number of leguminous plants usually known as Oxytropis or 
Spiesia ; a nineteenth instalment of “ New or Noteworthy Species,” 
dealing likewise largely with Leguminose; on the classification of 
asclepiads, in which the genus Oxypteryx is proposed for Asclepias 
arenicola Nash, and Podostemma for certain other species cluster- 
ing about Asclepias longicornu Benth.; the genus Chamecrista, first 
established by Commelin in 1697, and of which, fortunately, con- 
sidering their recent multiplication, no species-are characterized as 
new, though nine are transferred from their familiar association 
with Cassia; a sixth part of “Studies in the Composita” devoted to 
a discussion of the following new and restored genera: Leucosyris, 
Leucelene, and Ionactis, the latter based on Aster linariifolius L., Chry- 
sopsis alpina Nutt., and A. stenomeres Gray; a twentieth instalment of 
“ New or Noteworthy Species,” well distributed over the Polypetalz 
and Gamopetalz ; a second series of “ Studies in the Crucifere,” in 
which the genus Nesodraba is proposed for several species of a 
Alaskan region, previously referred to Draba or Cochlearia ; and 
“ Notes on Violets,” accompanied by three plates illustrating Vio/a 
emarginata. T. 
Cell or Corpuscle? — Under this title, in Watural Science for 
December, 1897, Rudolf Beer discusses the much-vexed question of 
the terminology of those structural units which are yet organisms 
rather than the ultimate units of organs. Concluding that in vege- 
1 Pittonia. A series of botanical papers by Edward L. Greene. Washington, 
September-December, 1897. Price, 50 cts. 
