318 The American Naturalist [April, 



Sciences, is mainly taken up with the new species discovered by him 

 while acting as Field Agent for the TJ. S. Department of Agriculture. 

 The author says '* the long delay in the publication of the report 

 necessitates the early publication of the new species." The author 

 does not follow the "Rochester Rules" of nomenclature, and gives 

 some reasons for not doing so, but the reader is amused to find under 

 Oxiitrnpii acutirostris (Watson) the remark "should it be necessary to 

 reduce this genus to Spiesia, the name must be S. acutirostris (Watson)," 

 and again under Oxytropis nothoxys (Gray), the synonym Spiesia noth-. 

 oxys (Gray). For one who does not accept the " Rochester Rules " 

 this is indeed a remarkable proceeding, since it is the deliberate addi- 

 tion of two synonyms (with "Jones" as the authority) to what the 

 author calls " the mass of new names, nine-tenths of which are wholly 

 useless." — K. C. Davis has issued a " Key to the Woody Plants of 

 Mower County, in Southern Minnesota, in their Winter Condition " in 

 the form of a five-page pamphlet. It will be useful in the region for 

 which it is intended. — An interesting paper comes from Dr. G. Clau- 

 triau of Brussels, entitled Etude Chemique du Glycogene chez les 

 Champignous et les Levures," from which we hope to make extracts in 

 some future number. — Charles E. Bessey. 



VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY. 1 



Ambrosia.— By this name Schmittberger designated a soft watery 

 substance found in the burrows of certain beetles and supposed to be of 

 use in feeding the larva?. The exact nature of this ambrosia appears 

 to have been for a time in doubt, owing to the fact that it was gener- 

 ally seen by entomologists rather than by mycologists. Of late years, 

 however, it has been conceded to be of fungous origin, although 

 no one appears to have studied it critically. Since the appear- 

 ance of M6ller's book on the Fungous Garde'ns of South American 

 Ants, the subject of ambrosia has received renewed attention. In this 

 country, Mr. Henry G. Hubbard, who has long paid especial attention 

 to the habits of coleoptera, has repeatedly observed this substance in 

 the chambers of Xyleborus pitbescens in orange trees in Florida, and 

 has recently discovered it in the burrows of Corthylxs pinictati**im>'.< in 



1 This department is edited by Erwin F. Smith, Department of Agriculture, 



