i889.] Botany. i6i 
book and the collection comprise 
in mineralogy which has been 
Agassiz associations throughout the country. iHe price oi 
the pamphlet and the twenty-five minerals which it describes 
is one dollar. — The principal formal and optical characteristics 
of the more important rock-forming minerals have been 
arranged by Rosenbusch' in sets of tables covering about 
twenty-five pages. The tables are of great convenience to 
students who are far enough advanced in the study of petro- 
graphy to understand the significance of the terms used in 
them. 
BOTANY.= 
Notes on Nebraska Lichens.— Our knowledge of the 
Lichen Flora of Nebraska is as yet very meager being con- 
fined principally to the work of Hayden and Hall during the 
Government Geological Surveys. Our knowledge, such as it is 
however, shows that our Lichen Flora has many interesting as 
well as instructive characteristics. There is a general dearth 
of the large eastern forms throughout the greater part of the 
state. There are, however, along the Missouri river and its 
tributaries, many forms that are found in the eastern states. 
The Flora of this region serves as a connecting link between 
the timber forms of the East and the prairie forms of the West. 
The prairie region has an abundance of earth forms such as 
Endocarpon, and many Buellias and Biatoras. 
Many semi-mountain and mountain forms occur in the 
western and northwestern parts of the state. Beginning with 
the eastern border of the state and going west a gradual tran- 
sition from timber forms to earth forms, is observable ; and 
from these to the forms usually found in higher altitudes as 
UmbiHcaria, Omphalaria, and similar forms.— r. A.Williams. 
As TO THE Citation of Authorities.— That the effects 
of individual eccentricity when given room for free develop- 
ment are always striking, is well shown by the diversity of 
methods used by botanists in giving authorities for scientific 
names. In the good old days when but one name, that of 
the author of the combination, was cited, there was, at least 
uniformity and hence some certainty. But the later method 
1 Hiilfstabellen zur Mikroskopischen Mineralbestimmung in Gesteinen. Stutt- 
gart. 1888. 
^ This department edited by Dr. C. E. Bessey, Lincoln, Neb. 
