BOTANICAL NEWS. 319 



Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales (vol. x. pt. i. : June). — W. Woolls, 

 ' The ProteaceiB of Australia.' 



Science-Gossip. — W. B, Grrove, ' HdploijrapJduni' [H. hiculor, 

 sp. n. : figs. 127-30). 



BOTANICAL NEWS. 



The Scottish Eights of Way Society of Edinburgh lias recently 

 sent an active deputation to traverse some of the mountain-paths 

 in the centre of the Highlands, and particularly to erect guide- 

 posts. This expedition has dealt with the Braemar district, and 

 made an excellent beginning. Botanists who have been excluded 

 from Glen Doll, Clova, will be glad to hear that a guide-post has 

 been erected at its foot, indicating through it a "Public path to 

 Braemar." Another notice-board erected previously by Mr. Mac- 

 pherson, the proprietor, stands beside it with the inscription, 

 " Private entrance to Glen Doll." Experience has proved, since 

 this step was taken by the Eights of Way Society, that visitors on 

 being challenged have only to assert their determination to proceed 

 to gain access to this beautiful and botanically interesting spot. 

 Admirable as the action of the Society is in recovering for the 

 public so many ancient paths, yet it will be matter for regret, 

 especially to naturalists, if this much should satisfy the public 

 demand for "access to mountains." Game-keepers will still confine 

 travellers to certain tracks, and thus exclude the naturalist from 

 his most interesting hunting-grounds. While the gratitude of 

 botanists is due to the Society for such benefits, there should be no 

 relaxing of efibrts in favour of Mr. Bryce's "Access to Mountains 

 Bill," which is intended to provide wider access everywhere. 



The portrait of Mr. Bentham — a copy of that in the rooms of 

 the Linnean Society — for which subscriptions were invited some 

 time since in these pages, has been placed in the Kew Herbarium. 



OBITUARY. 



Me. Joseph Sidebotham, J.P., F.L.S., &c., of Erlesdene, Bowdon, 

 Cheshire, was perhaps — at all events latterly — better known as an 

 entomologist than a botanist, his collections of British Lepidoptera 

 and Coleoptera ranking among the finest in this country ; but most 

 of his attention in his earlier years was bestowed upon the study of 

 Botany. In his native place, Apethorne, near Hyde (he was born 

 in 1824), he devoted much time to the exploration of the Tame 

 Valley, adding no less than twenty-five species to those previously 

 rendered. A life-long friend of Mr. L. H. Grindon, the latter 

 dedicated to him his ' Manchester Flora,' published in 1859, " in 

 admiration of his talents as a successful student of Nature in all its 

 branches, and of Botany in particular." For many years he was a 



