AmAp0I?^•l?9h6a^m•}        Botany  and  Materia  Medica.  21 1 
and  authorities  down  to  the  year  1885,  and  is,  likewise,  a  valuable 
key  to  synonomy.  It  is  now  announced  that  a  supplement  is  in 
course  of  preparation,  to  continue  the  work  from  1885  to  1895.  It 
is  hoped  to  publish  this  supplement  during  the  present  year,  and 
this  will  serve  to  make  the  work  still  more  valuable,  and  place  all 
systematic  botanists  under  a  lasting  indebtedness  to  these  indefat- 
igable compilers. 
Another  indication  of  the  reviving  interest 
Botanical         in  the  study  of  botany  is  found  in  the  numer- 
Contributions.     ous  contributions  published  by  the  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture,  and  by  the 
botanical  departments  of  various  universities.  The  Government  has 
rendered  valuable  service  to  the  science  by  publishing,  as  special 
bulletins  from  the  Division  of  Botany,  monographs  and  carefully 
prepared  descriptive  lists  of  the  special  collections  made  principally 
in  the  West,  Southwest  and  in  Alaska.   These  have  greatly  extended 
our  knowledge  of  a  large  portion  of  our  own  flora,  which  had  been 
but  imperfectly  explored. 
Among  the  important  contributions  from  State  universities  may 
be  cited,  as  an  example,  the  "  Minnesota  Botanical  Studies." 
The  Field  Columbian  Museum  of  Chicago 
has  made  a  creditable  beginning  in  its  first 
botanical  publication,  "A  Contribution  to  the 
Flora  of  Yucatan/'  by  Dr.  Charles  Frederick 
Millspaugh.  Our  knowledge  of  the  flora  of  this  peninsula  and  the 
neighboring  islands  has  been  practically  limited  to  the  specimens 
from  imperfect  collections  studied  by  Professor  Hemsley,  and  de- 
scribed by  him  in  "  Biologia  Centrali-Americana."  The  Field 
Museum  has  decided  to  place  a  collector  in  this  field  to  accumulate 
a  full  knowledge  of  the  flora.  The  present  contribution  by  Dr. 
Millspaugh,  although  intended  only  as  a  preliminary  catalogue  and 
review  of  the  previous  collections,  adds  considerably  to  the  existing 
knowledge.  In  the  plants  enumerated,  we  meet  quite  a  number  of 
medical  and  pharmaceutical  interest,  such  as  Acacia  farnesiana, 
Caesalpinia  Bonducella,  Melia  Azederach,  Ricinus  communis, 
Bixia  Orellana.  Of  the  citrus  family,  the  lime  (Citrus  Limetta, 
Risso)  is  the  most  extensively  cultivated.  The  lemon  (Citrus  Lim- 
onium,  Risso),  the  orange  (Citrus  Aurantium,  L.),  and  the  bitter 
orange  (Citrus  vulgaris,  Risso)  are  also  cultivated  to  a  limited  extent. 
