the American Cipurea, with a similar rootstock, but the perianthtube obsolete, and usually more than one flower to the spathe; and the Eusisyrinchiea and Aristea, which have neither bulb nor corm, the second being distinguished from the first by its distinct perianth-tube. The genus Keitia, queried by Bentham, which was founded by Regel on a species from Natal, is now identified with Eleutherine plicata Herb.

The third tribe, Ixiea, with spicate, non-fugitive flowers solitary in each spathe, corresponds exactly with that of Bentham, and includes Geissorhiza, Ixia and their allies, with a regular perianth and simple style-branches, the Watsonia group with unilateral stamens and bifid style-branches, Acidanthera, Tritonia, &c., with a subregular periauth-limb, and the irregular Gladiolus group. It will thus be seen that Mr. Baker has abandoned the serial arrangement of his Systema Iridæarum, which preceded that of the Genera Plantarum. He then adopted three series-Ixiea, Iridea, and Gladiolea, the first characterised by a regular perianth with similar inner and outer whorls and æquilateral stamens, including therefore Ixia and its near allies and the crocuses, and thus scarcely comparable with the present tribe of the same name.

Pax, who elaborated the Iridacea for Engler and Prantl's Pflanzenfamilien in 1887, has an arrangement very like that of Bentham; of his three sections, Ixioidea corresponds exactly to Ixiea, while the sub-tribe Crocea is separated as a distinct section, Crocoidea; the remainder of Sisyrinchiea, and the Moraca, are united in a third, Iridoidea.

In the present handbook the same plan is followed as in those dealing with the Fern Allies, Amaryllidea, and Bromeliacea, the similarity extending to the convenient size and neat green binding of the three volumes. Unfortunately we may push the comparison a little further. Mr. Baker is a rapid worker, and gets over a great deal of ground, but he lacks a certain fineness of touch, so that a want of finish is occasionally evident. We remember to have made a similar observation when reviewing his Handbook of Bromeliacea. The species of Marica and Sisyrinchium, described by Martens and Galeotti (Bull. Acad. Roy. Brux. x.) from specimens collected by the latter in Mexico, are not included, though cited by Hemsley in the Biologia Centrali-Americana, where it is stated that the Sisyrinchium (S. affine) is referred to iridifolium (presumably by Mr. Baker himself) in the Kew Herbarium. There are some names of European species which we cannot find taken up, e. g., Iris tristis Rchb. (fig. 327 of his Icon. Fl. Germ.), which in the Systema occurs where we should expect to find it, among the varieties of pumila, although the other varieties are mentioned. Of course we do not look for citations of M. Gandoger's innumerable names-life is too short and space too valuable. Again, it would be well in cases where the name of a figure is corrected, especially in so well known and universally used book as the Botanical Magazine, to say exactly what the figure does represent. Thus we have on page 33, "Iris aphylla L. non Bot. Mag.," and on the next, I. lurida Ait., Bot. Mag. t. 986, non 699"; but what then are these Bot. Mag. figures? There are a few mistakes in numbers in the references,

156

THE CHARACEE. OF AMERICA.

SET OF BRITISH RUBI.

and I. Watii, a species dedicated to the collector, Dr. Watt, should have two ts; it is correctly written in the index.

Finally, it would have been more useful if more numbers had been quoted, especially in the case of the less-known species. We know, or have heard, that citation of numbers panders to laziness; but all the same, if one has not an authoritative specimen, it does considerably help out a description, especially if the latter is not very full or is provokingly like its neighbours. A. B. RENDLle.

The Characea of America.
ALLEN. 8vo. New York.

Part ii. Fascicle 1. By Dr. T. F. [1893] not dated. Price 1 dollar.

In the second part of this work Dr. Allen proposes to give descriptions and illustrations of all the American species. The present number includes a part of the Monarthrodactylous section of Nitella, eight species being described, of which four are new— N. obtusa, N. montana, N. Blankinshipii, and N. missouriensis, all closely allied to N. opaca. In adddition to eight lithographed plates with magnified representations of parts of the various species, Dr. Allen has introduced a new feature in the illustration of these plants by giving photographs of dried specimens of some of them reproduced by process-blocks. Some of the photographs convey a very good idea of the general appearance of the plants, but the others are taken from badly preserved specimens. It is to be regretted that the plates are not numbered so that they can be referred to, and that the letterpress is disfigured by a large number of printer's errors. H. & J. GROVES.

Set of British Rubi. Fasc. 2, Nos. 26-50. Prepared by the Revs. E. F. & W. R. LINTON, R. P. Murray, and W. MOYLE ROGERS.

THIS second fasciculus includes several of the commonest and most widely-distributed British forms, which are well known to all students of the genus, such as fissus, Lindleianus, rusticanus, amplificatus, Sprengelii, Radula, echinatus, Koehleri var. pallidus, and dumetorum var. ferox. Amongst the more local and less-known types are dumnoniensis of Babington, Mercicus of Bagnall, pyramidalis of Kaltenbach, cognatus of N. E. Brown, mutabilis of Genevier, Lejeunii of Weihe & Nees, and argentatus and devexiramus of P. J. Mueller. British botanists will be very glad to have placed before them a specimen of the true carpinifolius of Weile and Nees, for there is hardly any other of their names which we have used so diversely. The specimens are carefully selected and well-dried, and may be taken as a model of what is needed by those who collect for the exchange clubs. Along with this set is distributed to each subscriber a copy of the Synopsis by the Rev. W. Moyle Rogers which has appeared in instalments in this Journal. In this botanists will find summarised the large amount of work in the genus which has been done in Britain by the editors of the fasciculus and others since Focke's Synopsis of the European Rubi has found its way into the hands of our botanists. It would have added materially to the value of the Synopsis if more synonymy

had been given. It is often difficult or impossible to tell in what relation the names here used for the first time as applied to British forms stand in comparison with those employed by Babington in his Synopsis and in his supplementary papers in this Journal, and in the list in the last edition of the London Catalogue. For our commonest English hedge bramble the name ulmifolius Schott, which is used by Focke, has many years' priority over rusticanus ; and horridus of C. F. Schultz, fully described in 1819 (Fl. Starg. Suppl. p. 30), has many years' priority over dumetorum ferox. The name dumetorum as used by Weihe & Nees is intended to cover corylifolius, as well as our dumetorum. J. G. B.

The Structure of Wheat: shown in a series of Photo-micrographs, with explanatory remarks. By ROBERT H. DUNHAM. London: Wm. Dunham, Mark Lane. 1892. Pp. 26, and 21 photographs. 8vo.

THERE are some admirable and instructive photographs in this volume, though they are not all equally good. They are chiefly devoted to the flower and fruit, but two deal with the stem, and one of these is very good, showing the structures through the solid portion of a node. The details of the flower do not lend themselves to the production of satisfactory photo-micrographs, but the sections of the grain are valuable. The photographs of the glutencontaining cells (numbered 17 and 18), which form the outer series of the cells of the seed, are unhappily interpreted as being an inner skin of the grain. It must however be said that a careful investigation of the photographs will supply an accurate idea of the structure and parts of the grain of wheat.

66

It is to be regretted that Mr. Dunham, in issuing his original illustrations, did not obtain the help of some one acquainted with histological botany. He would have avoided some incorrect interpretations of the objects photographed, such as making the glutencells a skin, or treating the walls of the empty cells in his sections as "gluten webbing, spread out somewhat after the manner of a fishing-net, to which it has a distinct resemblance." The endosperm," he says, "consists of gluten-walls and starch, and the gluten is arranged in a fine network, which extends to the centre of the berry, forming, with the starch, the inside of the wheat berry." The reader will meet with many novel notions in the book, such as, to give a single example :-"The hairs of the beard are hollow. These hollow hairs are, in effect, conduits, of which it is the function to draw off the superfluous moisture that would otherwise cause prejudicial fermentation. On the other hand, it is the proper function of this moisture to convey to the kernel its mineral and gaseous food. Another duty of the beard is connected with the earliest life of the plant, for when the seed is first sown, these hair ducts suck up the moisture necessary for the process of germination."

W. C.

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ARTICLES IN

JOURNALS.

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Annals of Botany (March). A. C. Seward, The Genus Myeloxylon' (2 plates). D. H. Scott & G. Brebner, The Secondary Tissues in certain Monocotyledons' (3 plates). B. G. Cormack, Cambial Development in Equisetum' (1 plate). J. R. Green, Vegetable Ferments.' - E. Overton, Reduction of Chromosomes in Nuclei of Plants.'-P. Groom, The Velamen of Orchids.' — Id., • Influence of external conditions on form of leaves.'— A. P. Swan, 'Resisting vitality of spores of Bacillus.'

Annals Scottish Nat. Hist. (April). - A. Bennett, 'Records of Scottish Plants for 1892.-E. M. Holmes, Occurrence of Pylaiella varia in Scotland' (1 tab.). J. Roy, Scottish Desmidiem.'

Bot. Centralblatt. (No. 14).-H. Schenck, Ueber Einschliessen von grösseren Schmitten zur Herstellung von DemonstratiensPräparaten.' (Nos. 15-17). M. Britzelmayr, Materialen zur Beschreibung der Hymenomyceten.'

Botanical Magazine (Tokio: Feb.). R. Yatabe, Senecio Bonninsima, sp. n.

Bot. Notiser (häft. 2). K. Bohlin, Suörlger från Pite Lappmark.' N. E. Svedelius, Några iakttagelser angående fröna hos de svenska Juncus-arterna.'-G. A. Fröman, Om slingringen hos Solanum Dulcamara.'-O. Juel, 'Om några heteroeciska Uredineer.' -A. Pihl, 'Ofversigt af de svenska arterna af slägtet Batrachium.'

Bot. Zeitung (pts. 3 & 4: April 1).-G. de Lagerheim, Rhodochytrium, nov. gen., eine Uebergansform von den Protococcaceen zu den Chytridiaceen.' - M. Büsgen, 'Ueber einige Eigenschaften der Keimlinge parasitischer Pilze.'

Bull. Soc. Bot. France (xxxix., Sess. extraord. en Algérie). Rapports sur les excursions de la Société.

Bull. Torrey Bot. Club (March). N. L. Britton, J. S. Newberry' (portrait). J. H. Redfield, I. C. Martindale.' - E. L. Gregory, Anatomy as a special department of Botany.' - W. G. Farlow, Notes on Alga.'-B. D. Halsted, Solanaceous Anthracnoses.'-J. D. Leiberg, Ditrichum montanum, Grimmia pachyphylla, spp. nn. (2 plates). G. N. Best, Buxbaumia Piperi, Ditrichum ambiguum, sp. nn. J. Deby, Fossil Aulisci of California.' T. F. Allen, New Characem (Nitella formosa, N. japonica, spp. nn.).— N. L. Britton, Hieracium Greenii, sp. n. (1 plate).

Erythea (April).-E. L. Greene, Vegetation of summit of Mount Hamilton.' Id., 'Novitates Occidentales.' A. Davidson, 'Immigrant Plants of Los Angelos County.'

Gardeners' Chronicle (Mar. 25). Galanthus maximus Baker (n. sp. or hybr. ?).-H. N. Ridley, Eceoclades maculata.'-(Ap. 1). Iris atrofusca Baker, sp. n.-(Ap. 15), Bletia Godseffiana Kränzlin, Oncidium Kranzlinii O'Brien, spp. nn.

Irish Naturalist (April). R. Ll. Praeger, Flora of County Armagh.' W. Swanston, Silicified Wood of Lough Neagh.'

Journal de Botanique (April 1). P. Hariot, Flore cryptogamique de l'île Jan Mayen.' - L. Mangin, Recherches sur les composées pectiques.'-E. G. Camus, Monographie des Orchidées de France (contd.).-(April 16). L. Guignard, Sur le developpement de la graine' (contd.).—A. Franchet, Gerbera Tanantii, sp. n. La Notarisia (Oct.-Dec. 1892). W. West, Nonnullæ algæ aquæ dulcis Lusitanicæ.'-F. Del Torre, Alcune altre osservazioni sulle Alghe.'-D. Levi-Morenos, 'L'origine della Pietra litografica.' - E. De Wildeman, Sur la Cyanophilie' et l''Érythrophilie' des noyaux céllulaires.' F. Castracane, Nuovo tipo di diatomea pelagica italiana.'

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Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Italiano (Ap. 10). S. Sommier, Risultati botanici di un viaggio all' Ob inferiore.' - N. C. Kindberg, 'Excursions bryologiques.' - E. Baroni, 'Osservazioni sul polline di alcune Papaveracee.'

Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschrift (March). H. Zukal, Hymenobolus (gen. nov. Perichænacearum) parasiticus' (1 plate).-R. v. Wettstein, Die Arten der Gattung Euphrasia.'-K. Fritsch, 'Nomenclatorische Bemerkungen.'-G. Evers, Hieracium Solilapidis & H. pulchrum.' V. Schiffner, Bemerkungen über die Terminologie' (concl.).— F. Arnold, Lichenologische Fragmente.' (April). A. Kerner, Scabiosa Trenta (1 plate). V. Schiffner, Metzgeriopsis pusilla (1 plate).-H. Zukal, Lachnobolus pygmæus, sp. n. - P. Ascherson, Veronica campestris Schmalh.

BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, &c.

THE death of ALPHONSE DECANDOLLE, which took place on the 4th of April, at Geneva, in his eighty-seventh year, removes from us the second, though happily not the last, botanical representative of a name which has for nearly a century occupied a prominent place in the scientific world. It would be impossible in the space just now at our command to offer anything like an adequate tribute to his memory; this will be offered in many other periodicals. But we hope in an early number to publish some notes regarding the deceased botanist which will be of interest to the readers of this Journal, of which he was always a friend, and which was not unfrequently honoured by being the medium of his botanical communications.

DEATH has indeed been busy lately among botanists. In addition to those in our last issue, we have to record the loss of ISAAC C. MARTINDALE, of New Jersey, of whom a biography appears in the Torrey Bulletin for March. Mr. Martindale was born July 15, 1842, at Byberry, Pennsylvania; the date of his death, which took place at Camden, New Jersey, is not given. He formed a large herbarium, and contributed several papers to American periodicals. The same number of the Bulletin contains a biography and bibliography, accompanied by an excellent portrait, of Prof. JOHN STRONG NEWBERRY, who was born at Windsor, Connecticut, December 7, 1822, and died at Newhaven, Connecticut, on the same day, 1892.