No. 375.] REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 211 
of Fraxinus americana. Though primarily intended for the pharma- 
cist, these articles are of no little value to the botanist, and Dr. 
Kremers is to be congratulated on the promising outlook for his new 
journal. , 
Indiana Botany. — Several articles in the Proceedings of the Indi- 
ana Academy of Science for 1896, recently issued, are of interest to 
botanists ; namely, “ Notes on the Flora of Lake Cicott and Lake 
Maxinkuckee,” by Robert Hessler; ‘‘ Notes on Some Phanerogams 
New or Rare to the State,” by W. S. Blatchley; “ Periodicity of 
Root Pressure,” by M. B. Thomas; “Notes on the Flora of the 
Lake Region of Northeastern Indiana,” by W. W. Chipman; 
“ Additions to the Published Lists of Indiana Cryptogams,” by L. M. 
Underwood; “The Bacteriological Flora of the Air in Stables,” by 
A. W. Bitting and C. E. Davis; “An Experimental Study on the 
Pathogenic Properties of Common Yeasts”; “Exceptional Growth 
of a Wild Rose,” by Stanley Coulter; “A Revision of the Genus 
Plantago occurring within the United States,” by Alida M. Cun- 
ningham, in which P. minima and P. rubra are described as new ; 
“The Effect of Drought upon Certain Plants,” by Clara A. Cun- 
ningham ; “ Additions to the Cryptogamic Flora of Indiana,” by J. C. 
» Arthur; “The Uredinez of Tippecanoe County,” by Lillian Snyder ; 
and “ The Occurrence of the Russian Thistle in Wabash County,” 
by A. R. Ulrey. As might be expected, the papers are of very 
unequal value, and while those of local interest are useful, if some- 
what fragmentary, the one monograph is scarcely likely to add 
materially to a knowledge of the group it deals with. 
Sugar Cane.— The Bureau of Agriculture and Immigration of 
Louisiana has recently issued the first volume of a treatise on the 
history, botany, and agriculture of sugar cane and the chemistry 
and manufacture of its juices into sugar and other products, by 
Prof. W. C. Stubbs, Director of the Audubon Park Experiment 
Station at New Orleans. One chapter is devoted to the botanical 
relations of the plant, one to its anatomy and physiology, one to its 
modes of reproduction, and one to bacteriological notes on red cane. 
The remainder of the volume is historical and agricultural. 
Digestion in Pitcher Plants.—It has been variously claimed that 
the digestion of proteides in the pitchers of Nepenthes is due to a 
digestive ferment secreted by them and to the action of bacteria 
growing in their secretion. Professor Vines, in the Annals of Botany 
