Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/470

438 BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. (1 pi.). — A. Hausgirg, ' Zur Kenntnis der gamo- und karpo- tropiscben Bliitenbewegungen der Griiser.' — J. Tobisch, ' Zur Pilz- flora von Kiirnten ' (concL). — F. Arnold, * Licbenologiscbe Frag- mente ' (cont.). BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, dc. The Religious Tract Society lias issued, under the title Bow to Study Wild Flowers, a neat little balf-crown volume by the Rev. George Henslow. " Tbe object of the book is to enable students to rapidly acquire an accurate knowledge of typical Britisb wild flowers"; and tbis object it seems likely to fulbl, tbon'gb we trust tbose who use it will not follow the autbor in bis employment of tbe split infinitive. Tbe treatment is original, interesting, and, in most respects, accurate ; tbougb we bave commented on p. 422 on the erroneous derivation given for the name " London Pride." Tbe " artificial key to the orders and genera " bas a very terrifying appearance. Tbere is a great deal of information dealing witb fertilization and kindred subjects, not generally met witb in books of tbis kind, as well as an excellent index — only one, we are glad to say — in wbicb everytbing is included. Mr. Henslow's information on popular matters is, however, bardly to be trusted : be says oi Samhucus Ebulus, for instance, "it is sometimes called dane-wort, being supposed to bave been introduced by the Danes," but the name bas no reference to the " supposed introduction" of tbe plant. We mucb doubt wbetber Lythrum was ever *' a popular drug." Tbe illustrations are evidently from two sources, one good, tbe otber bad; tbey are in many cases inaccurately named— e.^. tbose lettered Gentiana Pneumonanthe, Solanum nigrum, Daphne Mezereum do not represent tbose species. Tbe book, bowever, is sure to become popular, and no doubt tbese slips, as well as occasional misspellings, will be corrected in the next edition. In the last number (part 5, vol. i.) of the South Eastern Naturalist, Mr. George Dowker bas a " Note on Silene dichotoma — a plant new to Britain," wbicb be found in an arable field near Wingbam Hill, Kent, in 1887. We do not know in wbat sense the pbrase "new to Britain " is to be understood : the plant is certainly not native, and bas often been recorded as a casual in tbese pages and elsewbere. In the Britisb Herbarium of the Department of Botany we bave specimens from Hartlepool (1873), Croydon (1874), Kingswood, Gloucestersbire (1882), York (1880), Albury (1893), S. Devon (1894), and Bedfordshire (no date). The Seventh Annual Report of the Missouri Botanic Garden contains three important papers on United States plants ; the first on the Jiir/landacece by the Director, Dr. Trelease, illustrated by 25 plates ; the second on the Agaves, by A. Isabel Mulford, with 38 plates; and the third on the Ligulate Wolffias, by C. H. Thomp- son, with 3 plates. There are, besides these, numerous illustrations and other plates of purely ornamental description, such as that of