1884.} Botany. 291 
these little-known plants. Fasciculus 1v, just received, brings the 
number of species up to forty. As with the previous fasciculi, the 
specimens are excellent, and the labeling leaves nothing to be de- 
sired. The species are as follows: Nitella tenuissima, N. glom- 
erulifera, N. opaca, N. minuta, Tolypella comosa, T. fimbriata, T. 
intertexta, Chara hydropitys, var. genuina, C. sejuncta, C. gymnopus, 
var, armata, A New Zealand species, Nitella tricellularis is also 
added. 
The specimens were almost entirely collected in New York 
and New Jersey, indicating that they are, without doubt, to be 
found abundantly almost everywhere throughout the country, if 
collectors will but search carefully for them. These fasciculi are 
not sold, but may be obtained in exchange for specimens of 
Characee. One hundred specimens of any desirable form will 
be considered equivalent to a fasciculus in exchange. All corre- 
spondence and specimens should be addressed to Dr. T. F. Allen, 
10 East 36th street, New York city. May we not ask the readers 
of the NATURALIST everywhere to keep a sharp lookout for the 
Characez ? 
BoranicaL Nores.—In the Proceedings of the Davenport 
emy of Sciences, Vol. 1v, Dr. C. C. Parry publishes a paper 
on the species of Arctostaphylos, natives of the Pacific coast of the 
United States. A new species (A. oppositifolia) is described from 
wer California. In another paper in the same volume, Dr. 
Parry describes four other new species from Southern and Lower 
California, viz., Phacelia saffrutescens, Ptelea aptera, Polygala fishia, 
orcuttii. r. Gray’s paper in the December American 
Journal of Science, on “ Some points in Botanical Nomenclature,” 
should receive a thoughtful reading by all our systematic botan- 
ists. It is to be hoped that DeCandolle’s “ Nouvelles Remarques 
sur la Nomenclature Botanique,” of which Dr. Gray’s paper is a 
review, will soon appear in English dress in this country. Uni- 
formi of usage in matters pertaining to nomenclature is so de- 
sirable, that no one ought to consider himself fitted to describe 
and name a species until he has acquainted himself fully with the 
Wages of naturalists. Every botanical library should contain the 
Dall Report on Nomenclature, published in the Proceedings of the 
t can Association for the Advancement of Science, and the 
Ws of Botanical Nomenclature, by Alph. DeCandolle, of which 
4 Fa sh translation by Dr. Weddell appeared in 1868.—_—The 
Botanical Gazette contains a suggestive article, by Dr. 
pos t, on the origin of domesticated vegetables. He pro- 
S to study the origin of domesticated plants by taking into 
, L -culture n their variations. He is led to infer long prehistoric 
of many American plants, as maize, pumpkin, tomato, 
ofono Ste. Moreover, he considers it not improbable that many 
nar so-called natural species are but escapes from a prehistoric 
Wen. the December: Ti orrey Bulletin E. L. Greene 
