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The Scottish Naturalist. 



JOURNAL OF BOTANY (April). — Mr. Britten gives an account of the 

 life, so far as it can now be ascertained, and of the botanical work of Francis 

 Masson, a botanist of last century, born at Aberdeen in August, 1741. In 

 1772, he was sent from Kew, where he bad been employed as a gardener, to 

 the Cape of Good Hope, by the advice of Sir Joseph Banks, to collect seeds 

 and plants for the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. There he spent many 

 years, with only the break of an occasional visit to England. He finally left 

 the Cape in 1795. In 1797, he was sent on similar work to North America, 

 and died there, at Montreal, in December, 1806. He introduced many new 

 plants to the conservatories of his native land from all the countries visited by 

 him. The most of his dried plants are now in the British Museum, though a 

 few are scattered in other herbaria. {May) Mr. Britten continues his account 

 of Masson's work in an article entitled " Masson's Drawings of South African 

 Plants." 



" New Localities for Rare Mosses," by H. N. Dixon, among other 

 notes, Cemtodon conicus Lindb, from Dalwhinnie, Inverness (1883), in fruit; 

 recorded hitherto only in the barren state from Newhaven and from Ireland ; 

 Campylopus atrovirens, var. falcatus Braitkw, from Loch Coruisk, in Skye 

 (1883), barren; Didymocton cylindricus Schimp. From Kintail, Ross-shire 

 (1883), in fruit. 



GREVILLEA {June), contains the following notices of species not pre- 

 viously recorded for Scotland. "New British Lichens," by Rev. James 

 Crombie, is an enumeration, with descriptions of new species, of Lichens 

 described in "Flora'''' by Nylander from examples sent him from British 

 localities. Among them are " Lecanora {Placodium) miniatula Nyl. in 

 "Flora," 1883, p. 98 (subsimilar to L. lobulata Smmrf., with the thallus sub- 

 miniate planet and the spores smaller, .007-. 010 mm. long by .004-005 mm. 

 thick. On quartzose rocks, Morrone, Braemar (Crombie). Probably only a 

 variety or subspecies of L. tegularis (Ehrh.) " "Additions to the British 

 Cladoniei," also by Mr. Crombie, notes C. degenerans var. pleiolepidea Nyl., 

 rare among the N. Grampians, Morrone, C. coccifera, var. incrassata, Flk. 

 {-C. macilenta, f, demimtta, Crombie), rare in the West Highlands and 

 among the central Grampians. C. macilenta, var. scabrosa, Mudd,/. incrassata 

 Cromb. " Podetia larger, turgid, densely and coarsely granulato-squaiiuilose, 

 probably not infrequent among the Grampians. C. bacillaris, var. subcoronata 

 Nyl., not common in N. England, the S. Grampians, and N. W. Ireland. 

 Cladina sylvalica, f. tenuis, Lamy, probably not uncommon, var, grandis 

 Flk., local and rare in N. England, S. Scotland, and amongst the 

 Grampians. "New British Fungi," by Dr. M. C. Cooke, mentions the 

 occurrence in ovaries of Agrostis pumila, from Glen Cluny (presumably in 

 Braemar) of Tilletia sphaerococca F. de Waldh. {Dull Mosc. 1867, /. 255) 

 characterised thus : — ' ' Mycelium black spores, globose or obtuso-ovoid ( 026. -03 

 mm.), dark brown reticulations of the cpispore more prominent than in Tilletia 



caries" 



