604. General Notes. [June, 
Division IV. Angiospermae. 
Class v1. Acotyledonez, order 14. Rhizanthee. 
Class vil. eR orders 15. ae ae sear tl 17. Principes ; 
18. aceæ; 19. Enantioblasta ; 20, Helobiea ; 21. Gynandre ; 22. Scita- 
minee; 23. Ensat@; 24. pr eer g 5. Coronarie. 
Class VIII, ete ieee: orders 26 to 71, in apasoninetaly: the sequence followed 
in Ben ones and Hooker’s Genera Plantarum. The “‘orders” here oat however, 
of higher ae than the “ orders” of Bentham Ak Ho oker, being in fact 
in many cases nearly synomymous with the “ cohorts ” of the authors ue named. 
e place assigned the Slime-molds (Myxomycetes) indicates 
the acceptance of what we have for many years considered to be 
the true interpretation of their structure and relationship. In like 
manner the treatment of the Gymnosperms indicates a more philo- 
sophical spirit and a practical recognition of the doctrine of evo- 
lution. 
E STUDY OF THE LIVERWORTS IN NORTH AMERICA.—AS one 
of the results of the one-sidedness of the usual teaching of 
botany in this country, whereby it is almost entirely restricted to 
the flowering plants and “vascular cryptogams,” we find a most 
unequal distribution of workers throughout the various botanical 
fields. We have any quantity of “phanerogamists,” but though 
the cryptogamic fields bear a plenteous harvest, the laborers are 
few, and year by year as the scattered workers are cut off by 
death, there are few among the younger ones to take their places. 
There must be something faulty in the instruction given by our 
botanical teachers in the many colleges and universities in this 
country. The results would indicate that in too many cases the 
kingdom of plants is supposed to come to an end just a little way 
beyond the boundary of the phanerogams 
These thoughts are suggested by a little book recently brought 
out by Dr. L. M. Underwood, under the modest title of a 
Descriptive Catalogue of the North American Hepatic North 
of Mexico. In a prefatory note the author says, “The study of 
hepatica is attended with much iia for several reasons, 
among which may be named the following: 
1. These plants are very largely neglected by collectors. 
2. The literature on the subject is rare and inaccessible. 
3- Most of our public and college libraries contain little or no 
_ literature rues this subject. 
4. Many of the species described as new by American writers 
are not represented in any American collection. 
It is to be hoped that the purpose of the book as stated by the 
author “to relieve in part these difficulties, and to stimulate a 
more complete collection of Hepaticz ” may be realized. 
_ Tuming to the body of the book we find a few pages devoted 
_ to the general characters of has liverworts, time of collecting, 
a ae ution ti characters bibliography, oo 
a arama of the Back being filled with the dive cl 4 
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