i8 93 . NOTES AND COMMENTS. 329 



There is doubtless a great deal of truth in these remarks, but 

 what has Professor Bessey to offer us in place of our present system ? 

 It was admitted from the first that the Apetalae formed an artificial 

 group; a residue, in fact, of families whose places in a natural system 

 could only be determined by further study. This study is now pro- 

 gressing. Treub has shown, by his work on Casuarina, that one family 

 at any rate has affinities with groups other than the Polypetalae among 

 which Professor Bessey would apparently distribute all the apetalous 

 orders. Quite recent work on the Cupuliferae has led to somewhat 

 similar results, and we cannot but think that until other families of 

 doubtful affinity have been subjected to the same close investigation, 

 it will, on the whole, be better to keep them apart. Of course in the 

 case of those forming the series of Curvembryeae, and others, relation- 

 ships are more apparent, and there is no objection to ranking them 

 with their polypetalous allies ; but until a more truly natural system 

 has been satisfactorily elaborated, systematists will not be willing to 

 drag to pieces their herbaria, repeating the process every six months 

 to suit the peregrinations of a few orders of doubtful affinity. 



Following the botanical proceedings of the Association is an 

 account of the proceedings of the Madison Meeting of the Botanical 

 Club connected with the Association, in which the check list 

 ordered to be prepared by the committee on nomenclature occupied 

 the chief place in the discussions. The Botanical Club met on four 

 occasions during the session of the Association. Finally, we have 

 the proceedings of the Madison Botanical Congress, which occupied 

 two days immediately after the close of the two former functions. 

 The desired international character of the assembly was not realised, 

 the attendance of European botanists falling much below the expecta- 

 tions of the organising committee, and it was therefore decided that 

 questions of nomenclature should not be discussed. Professor Greene 

 was elected President, and M. Henry de Vilmorin, of Paris, one of 

 the Vice-Presidents. 



In the September number of the Journal of Botany, Mr. Britten 

 makes some amends for the omission of Gilbert White's name from 

 the " Index of British and Irish Botanists," by conclusively demon- 

 strating his claims to be included. A copy of Hudson's " Flora 

 Anglica " has recently come to light with White's autograph on the 

 fly-leaf, and a note, also in his hand, that all plants occurring within 

 the parish of Selborne are marked by a cross. Several corrections 

 and a few MS. notes show that he used the book a great deal. 

 Moreover, Mr. Bell, in his edition of Selborne, states that he had 

 a catalogue of Selborne plants in White's handwriting. At the end 

 of his note Mr. Britten prints a list of the 439 species indicated by 

 the Selborne naturalist. 



