THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. [Vol. XXXVII. 



An attractive little treatise on the poisonous mushrooms of Europe, 

 with particular reference to France, accompanied by a wall chart 

 illustrating eight deadly or dangerous species, by Octave Grosjean, is 

 published by the author at Saint-Hilaire, near Roulans, France. 



The root rot of the sugar-cane forms the subject of a thick quarto 

 volume, by Kaminerling, published by van Ingen, of Scerabaia, Java. 



From experiments conducted with the colon bacillus, Professor 

 Jordan concludes, in a paper on The Self-purification of streams, 

 reprinted from Volume X of the Decennial Publications of the Univer- 

 sity of Chicago, that the enteric bacteria disappear almost completely 

 in less than 150 miles in a river like the Illinois. 



A set of photomicrographs, accompanied by explanatory text, 

 illustrating the effects of Psciidomonas campestris on the turnip, are 

 published by E. F. Smith as Bulletin No. 29 of the Bureau of Plant 

 Industry of the United States Department of Agriculture. 



Sydow's Monographia Uredinearum, in its third fascicle, reaches 

 No. 879 of the species of Puccinia. 



From an article by Leffmann, in the June Journal of the Franklin 

 Institute, it appears that Agar-Agar is considerably used in certain 

 grades of ice cream and jelly, and its use is said to be capable of 

 easy detection by means of Arachnodiscus and other diatoms which 

 are always found on it, even in prepared food articles. 



Several important fern papers are contained in the Annals of 

 Botany for June. 



The dehiscence of the sporangium of pteridophytes is further dis- 

 cussed by Steinbrinck in the Berichte der deutschen Botanischen Gcscll- 

 schaft, issued May 27th. 



The relations of the leaf bundles of Conifers to the thickening of 

 the stem are discussed by Tison in Volume II of the Mhnoires de la 

 Societe Linneenne de Normandie, which also contains an article by 

 Lignier on the fruit of WiUiamsonia gigas and the Bennettitales. 



The Irish Naturalist has recently been giving considerable space 



Observations on the digestion of proteids with papain, by Mendel 

 and Underhill, are published in Vol. XI, part 1, of the Transactions 

 of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, recently distributed. 



