Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/556

 520 BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. a third of the volume with the monograph of Silene on which he has been engaged for many years, describing 390 species. Mr. Ridley takes 200 pages for his enumeration of the Orchidem and ApostasiacecB of the Malay Peninsula, • and has also a paper on Malayan CyrtandracecB. Messrs. Scotfc Elliot, Stapf, Rolfe, and Wright contribute papersvrespectiv^ly on Pentas, Sararanga, Vanilla, and Stemona : there is a posthumous paper on New Zealand lichens by Dr. J. Mueller (Miill. Arg.), Mr. Seward writes on a new Pinites, and Mrs. Weber van Bosse on Pseudocodium, a new genus of Siphonean Algae. There are also two papers of special interest to British botanists : one by Mr. G. C. Druce on Bromus interruptus, and one by Mr. E. J. Lowe on discoveries resulting from the division of a prothallus of a variety of Scolopenr drium vulgare. Bibliographers, by the way, must note that the publication of the Bromus dates from this Journal for Dec, 1895 (p. 344), where Mr. Druce gives a short diagnosis, not referred to in the paper. With a new number of the Proceedings, bringing the record down to the end of last June, and the Library Catalogue noticed on p. 516, it must be admitted that the Linnean Society starts its new session with a remarkable output. We hope, by the way, that the completion of the "Index Florae Sinensis," of which, with the exception of a very slender instalment, nothing has appeared since 1891, is not being lost sight of. There is, however, room for improvement in the manner ii^v which the Society's publications are produced. The type and paper' are good enough, but economy might well be exercised in many directions as regards the space occupied, which would of coursfe' result in a corresponding saving in the money expended. There is^' nothing like the extravagance which is so conspicuous in tiip^ Transactions, but certainly space could be saved in many ways./' There can be no reason, for example, for giving a separate line to each of the habitats in Mr. Ridley's long paper, or to the '* geo- graphical limits" in Mr. Williams'; in the latter, too, the ofteA^- copious synonymy might be run into one paragraph, instead 6^- each name having a line to itself. An occasional use of thiplj, black ("clarendon") type would often make the papers more easy of consultation, although this might be considered a daring inno- vation. Moreover, the proof-reading might be more careful. We are well aware that this remark may be met with a tii quoque^; •■hnt " contesti " and " exterioses " (for "context!" and " exteriores ") in one line (p. 209), followed three lines after by "progatio" for " propagatio," should not be found in the publications of a learned Society ; and numerous others might be cited. One at least of the papers should have been competently edited ; a Society like the Linnean should not issue unpublished names without diagnoses. We note that Dr. Mueller's paper was communicated to the Linnean Society " with the sanction of W. T. Thiselton Dyer, C.M.G., CLE., F.R.S. F.L.S." Technically speaking, no doulft Dr. Dyer's permission would have to be obtained before any wpr|c in the Kew Herbarium could be undertaken, but this form of acknowledgment seems somewhat unusual.