No. 1, August, 1921] BIBLIOGRAPHY, BIOGRAPHY, HISTORY 11 



71. Britten, James. Henry William Lett (1838-1920). Jour. Botany 59: 75-7G. 1921,— 

 An account of the Irish botanist Canon Henry William Lett, born at Hillsborough in 1838, 

 educated at Trinity College, Dublin, ordained in 1871, and after occupying various posts, 

 rector of Aghaderg 34 years. His botanical work was mainly with mosses and hepatics. 

 A list of his more important papers is given. — A'. M. Wiegand. 



72. Britten, James. Thomas Walter (1740?-88) and his grass. Jour. Botany 59: 69-74. 

 1921. — A summary of materials regarding Walter's life and herbarium. His Flora Caroliniana 



(1788) was published by the elder John Frascr, who gives the fullest account of Walter's 

 botanical work in his Short History of Agrostis Cornucopiae (1789). This was the Cornuco- 

 ■piae perennans of Walter (now called Agrostis perennans), which he and Eraser attempted to 

 exploit in Europe as a valuable agricultural grass. — K. M. Wiegand. 



73. [Britten, James.] William Whitwell. .Jour. Botany 59: 84-85. 1921.— A brief 

 account of the life and writings of Whitwell (1839-1920), who though not a critical botanist, 

 was a careful observer and collector. His herbarium has been given to the Birmingham 

 Museum. — K. M. Wiegand. 



74. Carrier, Lyman. Dr. John Mitchell, naturalist, cartographer, and historian. Ann. 

 Kept. Amer, Hist. Assoc. 1918: 199-219. 1921.— John Mitchell (died 1768) came to Virginia 

 about 1700 and returned to England early in 1746. He wrote Dissertatio brevis de Principiis 

 Botanicorum et Zoologorum (1738) and Nova Plantarum Genera Virginiensium (1741), which 

 were published in Acta Academiae Naturae Curiosorum (1748). He corresponded with Lin- 

 naeus, Collinson, Bartram (whom he visited in Pennsylvania), and other naturalists of his day. 

 He wrote several other scientific papers, but his principal works were on American affairs. 

 He made the best map of North America of colonial times, which was used by the peace council 

 at the close of the Revolution. With it was published anonymously The Contest in America 

 between Great Britain and France (1757), which, with The Present State of Great Britain 

 and North America (1767), also issued anonymously, is definitely attributed to Mitchell in 

 American Husbandry (London, 1775). Carrier proceeds to show that John Mitchell must 

 also have been the author of An Account of the English Discoveries and Settlements in Amer- 

 ica, in the revised edition of Harris' Collection of Voyages and Travels, vol. 2, 1748; also of 

 A New and Complete History of the British Empire in America (1756), and, finally, of Ameri- 

 can Husbandry, "By an American," which was published after Mitchell's death in 1775. — 

 M. F. Warner. 



75. Christ, Hermann. Der Briefwechsel der Easier Botaniker des 18. Jahrhunderts 

 Achilles Mieg, Werner de La Chenal und Jacob Christoph Ramspeck mit Albrecht von Haller. 

 [Correspondence of the 18th century Basel botanists Mieg, La Chenal. and Ramspeck with 

 Haller.] Verhandl. Naturf. Ges. Basel 21: 1-59. 1918. — A collection of 59 letters from 

 Haller to Mieg, covering the period Nov., 1755, to Dec. 3, 1777, is in the library of the Univer- 

 sity of Basel, while 27 of Mieg's own letters to Haller were published by the latter in his Epis- 

 tolae ab Viris eruditis (Bern, 1773-75), vol. 4-6. The letters from Haller to La Chenal have 

 been preserved in the Schonauer family, while those of La Chenal to Haller, covering the 

 period 1759-1772, are included in the Epistolae vol. 3-6. These two groups of correspondence 

 are rich in botanical interest, and have been abstracted with great thoroughness, with addi- 

 tion of explanatory notes in regard to the plants and authorities mentioned. By way of in- 

 troduction brief outlines are given of the life and principal publications of Mieg (1731-1769), 

 La Chenal (1736-lSOO), and Ramspeck (born 1722). The latter was a pupil of Haller at Gott- 

 ingen, but his letters between 1748 and 1756, included in the Epistolae vol. 1-4, offer only a 

 few items of botanical importance. — M. F. Warner. 



76. Christ, Hermann. Zur Geschichte des alten Gartens. V. [Contributions to the history 

 of old-time gardens.] Easier Zeitschr. Gesch. u. Altertumsk. 17:370-385. 1918.— Continuing 

 a series of papers in vol. 14-16 of the same journal (1915-17), the author discusses the origin 

 and introduction in Switzerland of certain garden plants. He takes up Rosa centifolia and 



