1883.| Botany. 787 
cellulose; the ammoniacal copper reagent is then used, and the 
treatment repeated eight or ten times until no further reaction 
ensues. The pure vasculose thus obtained preserves a light yel- 
low tint, maintaining the structure of the original tissue. The 
mean of several analyses of vasculose gives acomposition corre- 
sponding to the formula, C,;H,,O,;.—/our. Royal Mic. Soc. for 
April, 1883. 
A CHINESE Gymnociapus.—When Bentham & Hooker’s first 
volume of the Genera Plantarum was written, the genus Gymno- 
cladus was supposed to contain but one species, G. canadensis, 
the well-known “ Kentucky coffee tree” of the Mississippi valley. 
Recently, according to the Gardener's Chronicle, a second species 
has been discovered in China, named by Baillon G. chinensis, 
From its description it appears to be much like our native spe- 
cies. Its leaflets are said to be more numerous, narrower, and 
not acuminate, and the pod is thick (3-4 inches long) and but 
slightly compressed. The shells, when steeped for a couple of 
days in water, yield a saponaceous substance which is used for 
washing. Do the pods of our species contain this property ? 
Boranicar, Nores.—Puccinia buxi, the box rust, is figured by 
. G. Smith, in a recent number of the Gardeners’ Chronicle. 
Joseph Schrenk, in the April Torrey Bulletin, gives details of the 
structure of the haustoria of Comandra umbellata, accompanied 
three plates. He shows that in this case “there exists a di- 
rect and unobstructed communication between the cells of the 
haustorium and those of its foster root.” In the same number, 
. L. Greene describes five new species of Western plants, Dr. 
Vasey two new Western grasses, and Professor Tuckerman a new 
California lichen (Ramalina crinita). A new Phallus (P. togatus) 
rom Eastern Pennsylvania is described and figured in the May 
Botanical Gazette. S. E. Cassino & Co., of Boston, announce 
at the manuscript of the long-promised Manual of North 
American Mosses, by Lesquereux and James, is completed, and 
in the printers’ hands. It will be uniform with Gray's Manual, 
and will contain copper-plate illustrations. It is to be issued in the 
autumn._——M. E. Jones, the well-known botanical collector of 
Salt Lake City, Utah, has issued a thirty page pamphlet, descrip- 
tive of the ferns of the West. A few pages are given to gen- 
eral structure, after which follow specific descriptions of the 
senera and species which occur in the region from Nebraska 
Westward. Altogether 108 species are described of which seven 
are Ophioglossacez, the remainder being true ferns (Filices). 
Recent numbers of the Botanische Zeitung contain a valuable 
Paper (with a plate) on cell division in Closterium——J. G. 
Lemmon has issued a pamphlet of twenty-three pages on the dis- 
“every of the potato in Arizona, being the substance of a paper 
; read before the California Academy of Sciences January 15, 1883. 
VOL, XVI.—NO. vit. 53 
