23 
irrigation works would seem to indicate a large native population 
engaged in the cultivation of rice; but the forest covers every- 
thing now, and it is remarkable how completely it has regained 
possession. It is to be noted that this dry forest is also ever- 
green, so that-deciduous trees form but a small portion of the 
forests of Ceylon. 
In conclusion, it is stated that no other British colony pos- 
sesses so complete a system of botanical and experimental 
gardens as Ceylon, and these have been located in each of the 
climatic districts, five in number, offering to students great facili- 
ties for botanical research. The director expresses a wish that 
these advantages may be more freely availed of by English 
students. 
Some rare and interesting mosses are enumerated and de- 
scribed by G. Venturi in the Nuovo Giorn. Bot. Ital. for October, 
1886. They were collected by the Abate Antonio Carestia in 
the Piedmontese Alps, and have been critically compared by the 
author. One species of Béindia is still uncertain, seemingly 
allied to B. acuta, var. Arenaria, Molendo, to which the name B. 
trichodes, Lindb., may be applied. The following are the rarer 
species: Lvncalypta spathulata, C. Mill, Hypnum Richardsoni, 
Mitl., Wnium subglobosum, Br. & Sch., Grimmia montana, Br. & 
Sch., and Barbula chionostoma, n. sp., described in the Rev. 
Bryol., 1885, No. 5, and more completely characterized here. 
Index Lichenum Brittanicorum. In current numbers of 
Grevillea, the Rev. J. M. Crombie gives a list of British Lichens 
according to the most recent Nylanderian arrangement. 
The Genus Evemostachys, Bunge. In Fascicle X. of “ Des- 
criptiones Plantarum Novarum et minus cognitarum,” printed in 
Vol. IX. of the Transactions of the St. Petersburg Botanical 
Garden, E. Regel publishes a monograph of this genus of Labi- 
ate, illustrated with ten plates. 39 species are described, all 
Asiatic, against 27 enumerated by Bunge. 
A Synopsis of the Rhizocarpee, by J. G. Baker, is concluded 
in the December number of the Journal of Botany. One Amer- 
ican species, Pi/ularta Americana, A. Br., is described, of which 
P. Valdiviana, Philippi, is a synonym. 
