MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND NEWS. 91 



While Central and South America are receiving consider- 

 able attention from botanists of the United States this year, 

 with Dr. Eusby on the Orinoco, Capt. John Donnell-Smith in 

 Nicaragua and Mr. Squires in Venezuela, South Africa is 

 receiving attention from the Germans. It is announced that 

 Mr. M. A. Schlechter of Berlin is about to start on a collecting 

 tour in South Africa. He will visit the Coud-Bokeveld, 

 Namaqualand, Transvaal, and the Limpopo and Zambesi 

 rivers. 



Peof. D. Oliver of Kew^has resigned the editorship of 

 Hooker's Icones Plcmtcwum^ the publication of which he has 

 Stuperintended since 1891. This work contains figures with 

 descriptions of new or rare plants, of which specimens are 

 contained in the Herbarium of the Royal Gardens, Kew. It 

 will in future be edited by the Director^ Dr. Thiselton-Dyer 

 for the trustees of the late Geo. Bentham. 



It has been stated, that the seeds of Oinko hiloha are " acrid 

 and poisonous when raw, but innocuous when roasted." The 

 fruits, cleansed from the fleshy outer covering, leaving only 

 the whitish " nuts," are sold in the stores of China-Town, San 

 Francisco, and are cooked and eaten by the Chinese. The 

 seeds have been eaten in the raw state, within our knowledge, 

 without any inconvenient results, but they are not agreeable 

 to the palate unless roasted. 



At THE nieeting of the Academy of Science of St. Louis, 

 Mo., held Jan. 20, Mr. C. H. Thompson exhibited specimens 

 of Wolffia lingulaia, which he collected in Kern Co., Cali- 

 fornia, last autumn. Both species belong to the sub-genus 

 Wolfiiella, of which flowers and fruits are quite unknown. 

 This species seems to have been known hei'etofore only from 

 Central Mexico. 



Mr. Roy W. Squires is about to spend some six months 

 in a botanical exploration in Venezuela on behalf of the 

 University of Minnesota. The area to be visited is the unex- 

 plored mountain region southeast of Barancas, considerably 

 south of any previous botanical trips in that republic. 



