560 General Notes. (July, 
appearance that it would were the parent trunk toward 4, forking 
in the direction of a. It is worthy of note that the bough beyond 
6 has about the same diameter as inside of a, while at the branch- 
ing part the wood is about equally divided between the two 
branches. 
This interesting specimen has been forwarded to the Smith- 
from the bark and protruded through the aperture. Later the 
tree has resumed the erect position. At the present time the 
entire cavity has been filled with new wood, and all traces of the 
wound bid fair to disappear. The mass of rubbish which has 
accumulated at the base of the tree gives the portion a—d the ap- 
pearance of having been elongated. 
Possibly such wounds are more readily healed in this country, 
owing to the irregularity and frequency of the periods of growth, 
corresponding to the great irregularity in the seasons of heat, cold, 
routh and moisture.—Heury H. Rusby. 
Boranicat Norrs.—The Characez of North and South Amer-— 
ica are now under a fair way to be elaborated systematically. Dr. 
T. F. Allen, of 10 E. 36th street, New York, who has already 
done such good work for some of our species, is making arrange 
ments for enlarging the scheme of his exsiccate and illustrations 
so as to include the South American species. He requests 
collectors to secure good specimens for him, and for those from 
South America he will make arrangements to pay liberally ——It 
is a genuine pleasure to call attention to the increasing usefulness 
of microscopical journals. The publishers of the American ecg 
nal of Mircroscopy deserve the thanks of students and teachers 
botany for republishing, in the April number, a lecture on . How 
to examine a plant microscopically,” by H. Pocklington Spee 
Eng.). The article, which occupies eight pages, is a most exCer” 
lent one, and cannot fail to do much I. C, Martindale, 
of Camden, N. J., has issued a neat Catalogue of Desiderata (2! 
Professor 
