394 
The Ohio Naturalist. 
[Vol. IX, No. 1, 
the plant in relation to cold and freezing. The water is probably 
excreted by the cells surrounding the cavities, the membrane 
lining the central cavity being especially characteristic. It is 
w;hite and very tough and can easily be removed unbroken from 
the rest of the tissue. 
The Equisetums thus make an exceedingly interesting group 
for field study in the winter and it might be worth while to make 
observations on all of our native species. 
News and Notes. 
The eighteenth annual meeting of the Ohio State Academy 
of Science will be held at Denison University, Granville, Ohio, on 
November 26-28. A large and interesting meeting is expected. 
Gray’s New Manual of Botany, Seventh Edition,. 
Illustrated.* The publication of a new 7 edition of Gray’s 
Manual, extensively revised and modernized by Professor B. L. 
Robinson and Professor M. L. Fernald, of Harvard University, 
is an event of unusual interest in the American botanical world. 
The changes made in the work are such as to make it practically 
a new book. The nomenclature follows the Vienna code; the 
arrangement of the families is according to the Engler and 
Prantl scheme; the term family is used in place of the former 
“order;” and most of the genera have their full quota of recent 
species. A comparison with Britton’s Manual of a few genera, 
shows the following result: 
Salix—Gray 31, Britton 51. 
Crataegus — Gray 65, Britton 31. 
Viola—Gray 45, Britton 43. 
Antennaria — Gray 11, Britton 15. 
To one who gained his first botanical knowledge from the* 
5th edition, the present work, therefore, seems altogether new 
and strange; yet here and there, on close examination, some of 
the old landmarks are still visible. 
The revision has been admirably done, by eliminating the 
archaic and retaining the best features of the 6th edition. The 
numerous illustrations have been judiciously selected and will 
be of great benefit to beginners. The manual will probably 
become the standard text-book for most of the more conservative 
botanists of the United States. 
No doubt the whole vexed nomenclatural question will again 
be brought to the front in America. It will now become neces¬ 
sary for those who simply follow some “authority” for con¬ 
venience to choose between tw r o standards. At first thought 
*Ameriean Book Company, cloth, 8vo., 928 pp., price $2.50. 
