“ In reviewing this brief account of Professor Underwood's life and his varied activities we are impressed with the traits that actuated and controlled him. He inherited an energy and a keenness of interest, a curiosity and a quickness of perception regarding living things that are the endowment of few. These characteristics led him irresistibly to the study of natural history and explain the enthusiasm with which he pursued the various lines of his life-work. ”

“ It was unanimously agreed at Vienna to maintain the oldest specific name when a species is transferred from one genus to another, or the oldest subspecific or varietal name when a subspecies or variety is transferred from one species to another; but, when the rank is changed from species to subspecies or variety, or vice versa, the name need not be maintained, although it is desirable that it should be. To meet this agreement the Philadelphia code requires modifications, as shown by the amendments herewith recommended. ”

“ The appearance of a work on the Hepaticæ so soon after the publication of the Manual of N. A. Mosses will give students of the Bryophytes great assistance, and, with the author, we hope "that it may serve as a stimulus to more work in this direction, and lay in store material for a more critical examination of this group in the future." "No attempt has been made to publish new species, the writer believing that too many have already been described from insufficient data, and considering it far more necessary to set in order those already published." ”

“ The nomenclatorial type of a genus or subgenus is the species originally named or designated by the author of the name. If no species was designated, the type is the first binomial species in order eligible under the following provisions: (a) The type is to be selected from a subgenus, section or other list of species originally designated as typical. The publication of a new generic name as an avowed substitute for an earlier invalid one does not change the type of a genus. ”

“ New York State, from its diversity of favorable conditions, can justly claim the first rank in the richness and extent of her fern treasures. Other States may surpass her in a singular particular: Alabama produces the smallest fern (Trichomanes Petersii) ; California produces the richest, in the "golden-back" (Gymnogramme triangularis) ; Florida produces the most anomalous, in Viitaria, Ceratopteris and Ophioglossum palmatum; but no State can excel New York in number of species, variety, richness or profusion.
The States which approach nearest in number of species are California and Florida. ”

“ Lucien M. Underwood was born on October 26, 1853, in a little house still standing in the town of New Woodstock, in central New York. He died at his home in Redding, Connecticut, November 16, 1907.
From early childhood he responded to the healthful surroundings of his home and developed into a lad with a buoyancy of spirit, a whole-heartedness, and with an interest in natural objects that remained the striking characteristics of the man. In the early days of his childhood there appeared those traits and predilections that were to guide him in his life-work. ”

“ The desmids, the group of fresh water algæ to which this work is specially devoted, embrace a large number of species, some of them of most exquisite forms, and the publication of a work like the one under consideration must certainly have the effect of giving a further impetus to the study of them among those who have a microscope at their command, and who desire to know more about the inhabitants of the unseen world. ”

“ A name is rejected when there is an older valid name based on he same type (typonym) . Examples. — Canon19. A name is rejected when the natural group to which it applies is undetermined (hyponym) . (a) A specific or subspecific name is a hyponym when it has not been connected with a description, identifiable by diagnostic characters or by reference to a type specimen, figure or locality. Examples. — (b) A generic or subgeneric name is a hyponym, when it is not associable, at least by specific citation, with a binomial species previously or simultaneously published ”

“ A figured species is to be selected rather than an unfigured species in the same work. In the absence of a figure, preference is to be given to the first species accompanied by the citation of a specimen in a regularly published series of exsiccatae. In the case of genera adopted from prebinomial authors (with or without change of name) , a species figured by the author from whom the genus is adopted should be selected. ”

“ Three times he had accepted less remunerative positions in order to confine his work more closely to the lower forms of plant life and now for the first time he had the opportunity of realizing the ambition of his life. His interest now became more and more centered in the ferns and he enthusiastically devoted all his energies to studying and amassing collections of these plants. This work necessitated extended collecting trips in the United States and in the West Indies as well as repeated visits to the herbaria of Europe for comparison and study of material. ”

“ In 1883 he was called to Syracuse University as instructor in geology, zoology, and botany, and three years later was made professor. During the seven years of his service at Syracuse we find his lobor and interest no less diversified than at Bloomington. In addition to the subjects mentioned above, he taught analytical chemistry, mathematics for three years, and during the last year of his service, human physiology. He always had a great liking for this subject and frequently referred to this freshman class as the most interesting, enthusiastic, and enjoyable class of his experience. ”

“ On picking the embryo carefully out of the seed coats, however, I find a conformation that in a measure removes the difficulty. In the speciess which I have examined, viz., the present, L. ruderale, L. campestre, and, perhaps, L. intermedium, the cotyledons are continued, in the form of petioles, about half way down the radicle; the cotyledons, in fact, being transversely folded upon themselves, as stated and illustrated in Gray's Genera in the case of Subularia and Senebiera, the genera immediately preceeding Lepidium. ”

“ A hybrid may be named by placing the names of the parent species or subspecies in alphabetical order, connected by the sign ×; but in hybrids experimentally produced, or in which the sex of the parents is known, the female parent is to be written first, and the sex indicated by the signs ?, ?; Examples. — Carex debilis × virescens ; Digitalis lutea ? × purpurea ?. (b) A hybrid may be named when desirable like a species or subspecies, provided the binomial or trinomial is preceded by the sign ×, designating it as a hybrid. ”

“ We hope, therefore, to have no lack of interesting communications, not only from deep investigators, but from all who meet with interesting facts,—for we wish it to be distinctly understood, that we have chiefly in view the development of a greater Botanical interest in our neighborhood, and found our hopes of success as much upon learners as upon the learned. ”

“ An attentive study of plants in their native haunts is essential to the advance of the science, and in this respect the local observer has an advantage over the explorer of extensive regions, or the possessor of a general herbarium. ”

“ The number of plants new to the herbarium collected by Mr. Peck and contributed by correspondents was 98. Among these there were 38 species of fungi that were new to science. To his Thirty-third Report Mr. Peck appends an account of the New York species of Amanita, in which he has rewritten the descriptions and supplemented them with remarks upon the variations of the species, their peculiar characteristics and their distinguishing specific features. For the benefit of students of fungi, the synonyms have to some extent been given and the spore-characters cf each species added. ”

“ CODE Part I: Principles. 1.The primary object of formal nomenclature in systematic biology is to secure stability, uniformity and convenience in the designation of plants and animals. 2.Botanical nomenclature is treated as beginning with the general application of binomial names of plants (Linnaeus' Species Plantarum, 1753) . 3.Priority of publication is a fundamental principle of botanical nomenclature. Two groups of the same category cannot bear the same name. ”

“ He was a fair Latin scholar, had some acquaintance with several of the modern languages, was a good draughtsman, a composer of church hymns and tunes, and an instructor in musical harmony; and there was hardly any branch of natural science in which he was not sufficiently well read to be an intelligent auditor or critic. ”

“ The publication of his manuscript on “Moulds, Mildews, and Mushrooms” in 1899 stimulated study along this line and assisted greatly in establishing mycological clubs in many sections of the country. His numerous papers on the Pteridophyta and the recent revisions of his book upon “Our Native Ferns and Their Allies” have presented a rational system of classification of the group and a conception of its relationships and of the problems to be considered in its study that will serve as a guide in the investigation of these plants for generations to come. ”

“ During the past three summers I have spent a portion of my vacation in Litchfield County, Ct., and am able to report a considerable fern list, with a few new stations for some species. Most of my collecting has been confined to the towns of Cornwall and Goshen, extending once to Bantam Lake, where the extremely local Marsilia quadrifolia is found, and once to Salisbury and northward along the mountains of S. W. Massachusetts. In the list, C stands for Cornwall for species not found in Goshen, and S for Salisbury. ”

“ Note — Previous use of a name in zoölogy does not preclude its use in botany; but the proposal of such a name should be avoided. 4.The application of a name is determined by reference to its nomenclatorial type. Part II: Canons. Section I. Categories of Classification. Canon1. Connected or coherent groups of individuals are termed species. Canon2. Species are grouped into genera; genera into tribes; tribes into families; families into orders ”

“ The pods have a long, tapering base, and an abrupt, club-shaped extremity, which is broadly four-winged at the sides, the wings either continuing to the very apex, or becoming smaller and almost obsolete at the apex. This mark I find depends upon the age of the pods; when young, the wings seem very broad to the apex; when older, and filled out internally, the wings seem narrower at the apex. ”

“ Botanical Micro-Chemistry: an Introduction to the Study of Vegetable Histology, prepared for the use of students by V. A. Poulsen, translated with the assistance of the author and considerably enlarged by William Trelease, Professor in the University of Wisconsin, 12mo. Boston: S. E. Cassino & Co., 1884.
There has been considerable interest taken in this country for a few years past in the microscopic examination of plants, and the number of botanists who are turning their attention to the study of vegetable histology is gradually increasing. ”

“ In the other species of Lepidium the plane of division between these petioles, or "radicular" portions of the cotyledons, is parallel to the cotyledons proper, and consequently to the seed partition. In L. Virginicum this split is likewise parallel to the partition, and thus the "radicular" portions of the cotyledons, is incumbent, and so far the species is in accordance with its congeners. Where the cotyledons expand into a blade, they are turned sharply at right angles to the partition and become accumbent. ”

“ To him the keenest pleasure and the best recreation was life in the field, whether the exploration led him in quest of new forms of life or to a reexamination of familar types. He had an intense ambition to accomplish work. ”