Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/404

 876 BOOK-NOTES. NEWS, ETC. official pressure and repeated promises, its continuation seems as far off as ever, although the necessity for a Tropical African flora becomes more and more pressing every year. It is to be regretted that the energy which is so conspicuous in certain departments of work at Kew Gardens does not extend to the publications for which that establishment is responsible. We have already briefly referred (p. 239) to the continuation of the Mora Capensis, which, after remaining for thirty-one years in abeyance, has at last seen the light. This sixth volume begins the Monocotyledons, vols. iv. and v. being left for the completion of the Dicotyledons. The most noteworthy feature of this instalment — which, save for the short introductory note by Dr. Dyer, is entirely the work of Mr. J. G. Baker — is the small number of novelties it contains : in the 192 pages we note only eleven new species, four of which belong to Hypoxis. The breaking up of the area into some- what arbitrary regions is a perhaps desirable innovation on the preceding volumes ; we regret that the opportunity was not taken of omitting the brackets in which the authority for each name is placed — "G. ochroleucus (Baker in Journ. Bot. 1876, 182)" — as this mode of printing is now seldom employed, and indeed has a somewhat different signification. The recent Kew plan of printing adjectival names derived from persons with a small letter — " forsythiana " — which is in direct defiance of the Decandollean "Laws " as well as contrary to general practice, has, we regret to see, been adopted : for this we presume Dr. Dyer is responsible, notwithstanding his dictum (see p. 114) that "changes should never be insisted on without grave and solid reason." We are glad to find that our surmise as to the extinction of Erythea (see p. 280) was incorrect, as we have since received the monthly numbers — some of them very small ones — up to July of the present year. These contain notes and novelties of varied interest, as well as examples of the amenities of controversy as conducted by our transatlantic friends. The editor notes that "the Editor of the London Journal of Botajiy [is there any other periodical bearing this title ?] has had nothing to say for several months about 'Neo- American' nomenclature." This is an error; we have had plenty to say, although we have not said it. When American botanists show some signs of agreement among themselves, we shall be prepared to discuss their decisions. Meanwhile Mr. Jackson's note in our present issue will show that the subject is not lost sight of. The copy of Kees's Cyclopedia on which Mr. Jackson's notes, printed on pp. 307-311, were based, has been presented by him to the General Library of the Natural History Museum. Messrs. Marcus Ward & Co. have published in a neat portfolio forty coloured pictures of some common Plants of Manitoba. There is no letterpress beyond a list of the species figured, and it is not easy to see the object of the publication, nor to discover to whom such a collection will be of use, although, as such things go, it is not dear at half-a-guinea. No author's name is associated with the work.