Botany. 65 
MiscELLANEOuS.—Kroustschoff' has obtained little crystals of 
biotite by heating to a high temperature a mixture composed of 
basalt glass (fused basalt and acid rocks), biotite fragments, amor- 
phous silica, potassium silico-fluoride and sodium and aluminium 
fluoride.—By fusing tin stone with sodium carbonate and sulphur 
at a low temperature, for five or six hours, Genth? finds that little 
pyrite crystals are formed.—A labandine is a regularly crystallizing 
manganese sulphide. It has been produced artificially by Bau- 
bigny,® by heating in a sealed tube to 100° the pink precipitate 
produced when hydrogen sulphide is passed through an acetic acid. 
solution of manganese.—“ Precious Stones in the United States” is 
the title of a very readable article, by G. F. Kunz,‘ in the Decem- 
ber number of Harper’s New Monthly. Magazine. It is illustrated 
by a full-page lithographic plate of the most important gems found 
within the border of the United States. 
BOTANY 5 
SCHRŒTER’S ARRANGEMENT OF THE USTILAGINE®. — In 
Cohn’s Kryptogamen-Flora von Schlesien, Schræter divides the 
order Ustilagineæ into three families, as follows, viz. :— 
I. Ustilaginacei, containing the genera Ustilago Pers., Sphacelo- 
theca De Bary, Schizonella Schroeter, Tolyposporium Woronin. 
II. Tilletiacei, with the genera Tilletia Tul., Urocystis Rabenh., 
Entyloma De Bary, Melanotenium De Bary, Tubercinia Fr., 
oassansia Cornu. 
Ill. Thecaphorei, with the genera Schreeteria Winter, Theca- 
phora Fingerh., Sorosporium Rudol. The genera Graphiola Poit., 
Entorrhiza C. Web., Piapalopsis J. Kuhn, and Tuberculina Sacc. 
are added in an appendix as doubtful Ustilagineæ. 
_ScoRarEer’s ARRANGEMENT OF THE UREDINEE.—Schreeter di- 
vides the fruit-forms of the Uredinee (in Cohn’s Krytogamen- 
Flora v. Schlesien) iato two classes, viz. : (1) Fore-fruits or first- 
fruits (Vorfriichte)—including (a) Spermogonia, (b) Æcidia, (c) 
Uredo—and (2) Last-fruits or after-fruits (Endfriichte), including 
the teleutospores. The order Uredinex he divides into five groups, 
as follows, viz. :— 
Nee Puceiniei, including the genera Uromyces Lk., and Puccinia 
ers, 
„Min. u. Petrog. Mitth., ix., 1887, p. 55. 
p Contributions from the Chemical Laboratory of the University of 
ennsylvania, 1887, p. 5. 
i Comptes Rendus, civ., May, 1887, p. 1372. 
, December, 1887, p. 97. 
Edited by Prof dhas. E. Bessey, Lincoln, Neb. 
