574 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



were used to mix with those of Flax, but here again the yield 

 was small. Other sources employed were Peat, Pine-needles, 

 Cotton Grass, and Typha angustifolia, of which the last was the 

 most important. 



Messrs. Rowes & Chittenden (Joum. Roy. Hort. Soc.) sum- 

 marise the results of experiments at Wisley, on the effect of 

 grass on apple-trees, which have now extended over seven 

 years. They confirm Pickering's conclusions. Five varieties 

 in grass only yielded 23 apples throughout this period, whilst 

 an equivalent number of trees of the same varieties grown in 

 cultivated land yielded 811 apples. Trees with grass to within 

 1 ft. 6ins. of the trunk gave an intermediate yield of 185 apples, 

 and growth measurements showed the same gradation for the 

 three sets of conditions. 



The causes which have led to the failure of regeneration of 

 oak woods in Britain have been investigated by A. S. Watt 

 (Joum. of Ecology). The results obtained show that the greater 

 part of the acorns which fall are destroyed by animals, probably 

 mainly, as was suggested by Cobbett (Woodlands, 1825), by 

 mice. The conclusions of Hickel are also confirmed, that acorns 

 are very susceptible to loss of water, and readily lose their 

 viability from this cause. The mortality amongst germinated 

 acorns is also shown to be largely the effect of herbivorous 

 animals. 



Taxonomy. — Recent numbers of the Kew Bulletin furnish 

 descriptions of a number of new species belonging to the follow- 

 ing genera : Aconitum, Anisophyllcea, Brachiaria, Bruguiera, 

 Chrysopogon, Desmodium, Eriocaulon, Erythrina, Indigofera, 

 Kalanchoe, Kniphofia, Linociera, Memecylon (5 spp.), Panicum 

 (3 spp.), Pimpinella, Rosa, Rutenbergia, Sarcococca, Schcfflera 

 (2 spp.), Scyphosyce, Smithia, Sonerila, Vigna. 



In " Notes from the Royal Botanical Garden, Edinburgh," 

 Prof. Bailey Balfour describes 45 new species of Rhododendron, 

 and Hutchinson 13 spp. of the same genus. In the same 

 journal, Craib describes 9 new species of Enkianthus, and 1 1 of 

 Primula. 



In the Journal of Botany, new species belonging to the follow- 

 ing genera are described : Gardenia, Oxyanthus, Atractogyne, 

 Pavetta, Ratidea (3 spp.), and Randia (Wernham) ; Chceto- 

 carpus and Dendro-cousinsia (Fawcett and Rendle). 



A new genus of fresh-water algae placed in Hydrogastraceae 

 and termed Urnella is recorded by Playfair (Proc. Linn. Soc., 

 N.S. Wales), besides nearly 60 new species and varieties of other 

 genera. Numerous species of marine algae from the Pacific 

 Coast, chiefly belonging to the Myxophyceae, have been described 

 by Gardner (Univ. Calif. Bot., 191 8 and 1919). 



New British Fungi belonging to Hypochnus (2 spp.) and 



