1891.) Botany. 151 
part of the trunk becomes impermeable to water. But if the roots do 
not entirely lose the power of absorbing water, even in their oldest 
parts, as in the case of maples, lime trees, etc., the trees continue to 
thrive without underground union, so long as the denuded trunk is in a 
fit state to allow of the passage of water. The following interesting 
example will therefore be easily understood: A spruce fir tree, a hun- 
dred years old, divided at a height of about twenty-three feet from the 
ground into two almost equal trunks. In 1871. a complete ring of bark 
was removed from one of these trunks. The tree was cut down in the 
winter of 1888—’89; the two crowns were quite green, that of the 
ringed side being rather less abundantly provided with leaves. The 
roots of the injured side had ceased to grow; but in spite of that the 
ringed branch continued to grow for seventeen years, nourished by the 
roots of the uninjured side.— Gard. Chron., from Ann. Agronomiques. 
Botanical News.—The “ Index to North American Mycological 
Literature,” in the Journal of Mycology, will prove a most valuable aid 
to students of the fungi. In the last number no less than ninety-eight 
titles are given for the three months of May, June, and July. Although 
many of these papers were of slight importance, yet their number indi- 
cates a good deal of activity among the workers in this country.—— 
Hereafter the Journal of Mycology will appear at least four times a year, 
but not at regular intervals, the intention being to issue it whenever 
there is sufficient material for a number.——The elevation of the 
section of Vegetable Pathology to the rank of a division, thereby 
placing it on an equal footing with the other branches of the depart- 
ment, is a most gratifying indication of progress in botanical science 
in the National Capital. The November number of the Zorrey 
Bulletin tes sixty-two papers in the excellent ** Index to Recent’ 
American Literature.” At this rate (which is not unusual) the whole 
number of papers on botany published in America ina year must now 
be somewhat more than seven hundred! Surely ** of making mney 
books (botanical ones) there is no end,” and the ‘‘much study 
_ required by them will most assuredly prove “a weariness of the flesh.’’ 
——Dr. Britton’s “List of State’ and Local Floras of the United 
States and British America” contains nearly eight hundred entries. 
Every state and territory has had one or more catalogues made of some 
portion of its plants. Naturally the older states have more such lists 
-than the newer ones; but some new states have been more favored than 
some old ones, Thus, while Minnesota has 21, Kansas 30, and Colo- 
-© Tado 15, Virginia, Georgia, and Alabama have but four each, and 
some others have still fewer.——Theodore Holm, of the United States 
