The American Naturalist. 



BOTANY. 1 



Botany in the National Education Association.— An effort 

 is now under way to bring about greater interest in the teaching of Bot- 

 any than has hitherto been shown by American botanists. The new 

 department of Natural Science Instruction is intended to bring together 

 the teachers of science (Botany, Zoology, Chemistry, Physics, etc.) who 

 are interested in science as a means of culture, and to stimulate thought 

 and discussion as to how this end may best be obtained. What role 

 should Botany play in the mental development of a man ? In what 

 way may the study of plants be made an efficient factor in a man's 

 mental training? When and how should plant study be made a part 

 of a man's training? These are some of the questions which will be 

 discussed by the botanists in the Buffalo meeting of the National Edu- 

 cational Association on July 9th and 10th next. It is to be hoped that 

 many who are interested in this department of Botany will be present. 

 — Charles E. Bessey. 



Coulter's Revision of N. A. Cactacese.— Nearly two years 

 ago Dr. Coulter brought out the first part of his revision of the N. A. 

 Cactacese (Contrib. U. S. Nat. Hist., Vol. Ill, No. 2), and now in No. 

 7 of the same volume we have the concluding part. The family as re- 

 vised now includes North American genera and species as follows : 

 Cactus Linn., Sp. PL, 466 (= Mamillaria Haw. Synop.,177), with 64 

 species and varieties; Anhalonium Lem., Cact. Gen. Nov., with 5 spe- 

 cies; Lophophora Coulter, a new genus, with 2 species; Echinoeactu* 

 Link & Otto, Verb. Preuss. Gartenb. Ver., 3,420, with 52 species and 

 varieties ; Cereus Mill. Gard. Diet. Ed. 8, with 82 species and varie- 

 ties ; OpunHa Mill. Gard. Diet. Ed. 7, with 101 species and varieties. 

 We have thus a total of 306 species and varieties of North American 

 cactuses. The work is styled a preliminary revision, and the author 

 says, in his prefatory note, that on account of the peculiar difficulties 

 attending the revision " the undertaking would have been abandoned 

 only that it seemed but proper to contribute to the knowledge of the 

 group such facts as had come to light in the course of several years' 

 study," a most commendable conclusion, indeed. 



— Charles E. Bessey. 



Botanical News.— Dr. Charles A. White has recently prepared 

 a Memoir of George Engelmann for the National Academy of Scien- 



1 Edited by Prof. C. E. Bessey, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska. 



