40 ERYTHEA. 



The Botanical Gazette for December contains an article 

 on " The Botanical Explorations of Thomas Coulter " by F. 

 V. Coville. Coulter, who was the first botanist to cross the 

 Colorado Desert, noted for its peculiar flora, was at Monterey 

 in 1831-2. He there met David Douglas and the two botan- 

 ized together during the winter. There has been much 

 confusion concerning Coulter's plants, many collected east of 

 the Colorado having been credited to California. The 

 present paper is an attempt to determine the route of 

 Coulter's journeys and the localities whence he derived his 

 plants. 



Mr. B. D\ydon Jackson is now assisting M. Th. Duraud 

 of the Royal Herbarium, Brussels, in the completion of his 

 supplement to the Index Kewensis. This supplement is to 

 cover the ten years to the end of 1895, a period of special 

 importance in t!ie annals of West American Botany, and its 

 appearance will be awaited with eagerness by botanists on 

 this side of the Atlantic. It is announced that arrangements 

 are in progress for publishing the supplement uniformly 

 with the Index itself, and that it may be issued sometime 

 this year. 



Through the generosity of Dr. Tbiselton-Dyer, Director 

 of the Royal Gardens, Rew, the Botanic Garden of the 

 University of California has received seeds of Widdring- 

 tonia Wliytei, Rendle, which are now germinating freely in 

 a cool greenhouse. This Conifer forms forests on the 

 mountains of Nyasaland, South Africa, growing to the height 

 of 140 feet. It is said to have Juniper-like leaves, and cones 

 smaller than a chestnut. Out of seventeen seeds which have 

 germinated at Berkeley, twelve developed three cotyledons, 

 two have two only (which are broader than those of the other 

 seedlings), and three have four cotyledons. Should the 

 M'langi Cypress, as it is called, thrive in the climate of 

 California, as seems likely from the vigorous state of the 

 present batch of seedlings, it will prove a most interesting 

 addition to our introduced trees. 



