* 
64 General Notes. [ January, 
well as the botanical accuracy of the work, have been much 
admired. Upon the hoop of the pedestal the following legend is 
engraved : 
TRIO N } 
Jai v 
eighteenth—1885. 
Asa GRAY, 
In token of the universal esteem of American botanists. 
The vase, accompanicd with the cards of one hundred and 
eighty botanists, was presented without formality on Wednesday 
morning, the 18th of November. 
It is a very pleasant duty to record in the NATURALIST the con- 
summation of such a fitting plan of showing the esteem in which 
the name of Asa Gray is held by the botanists of America. That 
the days of the genial doctor among us may be prolonged for 
many years is the fervent prayer of every botanist. 
CATALOGUE OF THE PLANTS oF NorTH AMERICA. — Every bot- 
anist who has charge of a considerable collection of plants has 
felt the need of a convenient check-list of North American plants. 
The old Gray Catalogue, which was followed by the Mann Cata- 
logue, both confined to the plants included in Gray’s Manual, and 
later, the more extended list compiled by A. H. Curtiss, served 
a good purpose. These, however, included a comparatively 
small part of the species of the whole continent, and the botanist 
who added Western species to his collection was left without the 
means for noting his accessions. This want is now supplied (in 
part, at least) by the Catalogue of the Phenogamous and Vascu- 
lar Cryptogamous plants of North America (north of Mexico) 
compiled by J. H. Oyster, of Paola, Kansas. It contains entries of 
9867 species. The arrangement of Choripetalze and Gamopetale 
conforms very nearly with that of Bentham and Hooker’s Genera 
Plantarum. For some unexplained reason the arrangement of 
Apetalz and the Monocotyledons is not that of the Genera Plan- 
tarum, an unfortunate feature which might easily have been 
avoided. The species of each genus are arranged alphabetically, 
as is proper in a check-list. The proof-reading has been carelessly 
done, and the printing is not of the best; yet, with all its faults, 
the pamphlet is worth the price charged for it ($1.00), and will — 
serve a good purpose. 
Tue De Canpotie Prize.—The Physical and Natural History 
Society of Geneva offers a prize of five hundred francs for the best 
monograph of a genus or family of plants. The manuscript may 
be written in Latin, French, German, English or Italian, and 
should be sent to M. le President de la Société de Physique et 
d’Histoire Naturelle de Genève, a l’Athenée, Genève, Switzerland. 
—Gardner’s Chronicle. ‘ 
_ Tue DRYING oF WHEAT.—Experiments were made in 1384 at 
` the New York Agricultural Experiment Station upon the loss of 
water by wheat in drying. In the first case Clawson wheat, har- 
