BOTANICAL NEWS. 95 



to be a very rare arrangement, viz. a -f^ spiral, a member of a series 

 whose terms would run ns follows, i, |-, —, ~, ■^\, etc., these fractions 

 representing the values of the successive convergents in tlie continued 

 fi-action — 



1 

 4+1 

 2 + 1 

 1+j^ 

 1+ . . . 



— Professor Dickie presented specimens of Iil/OfJi/moiin pahnatn found 

 growing on an iron chain submerged for five months in six fathoms in 

 the Bay of Nigg, near Aberdeen, also specimens of P&lyujylionin Erodicei 

 found growing on a piece of hempen rope nttached to the same chain. — 

 Mr. Sadler presented specimens of TJlva cr'ispa, and recorded its occur- 

 rence in great profusion at the foot of a wall leading to Warriston Ceme- 

 tei-y, Edinburgh. 



lofamcal Jtctos. 



The Trustees of the Britisli Museum have appointed Mr. William 

 Carruthers to be Keeper of the Botanical Department in the place of 

 Mr. J. J. Bennett, who recently retired. None of the readers of this 

 Journal require to be informed of the very valuable additions to onr 

 knowledge of plant structure which have been made by Mr. Carruthers ; 

 many of his researches on fossil plants have been first published in our 

 pages, and the yearly indexes show other important contributions from 

 his pen. With the prospect of increased accommodation in the new 

 Natural History Museum, abundance of opportunity for developing the 

 great resources of the department will be afforded to ]\Ir. Carruthers and 

 his assistants. 



Mr. Baker has commenced in the ' Gardener's Chronicle ' a synopsis of 

 the genus Lilium. He separates as a subgenus {Notholirion) the Hima- 

 layan L. roseum ; and under the name L. Ilookeri describes another 

 species of the same subgenus from Sikkim. 



Under the title ' Bristol Pharmacology,' Mr. Stoddart, of Bristol, is 

 publishing in the ' Pharmaceutical Journal ' a series of very interesting 

 notes on the medicinal native plants growing round that city, which are 

 very well worth perusal by students of our flora. 



Dr. Asa Gray has recently given us a reconstruction of the Order Dia- 

 pensiacece. He associates with Biapensia and Pyxidanthera in this small 

 Order Shortia and Galax, which have been referred to various natural fami- 

 lies. We are also indebted to him for an excellent revision of the Polemo- 

 niacers of N. America, of which he describes 10 'J species under four genera. 



'The Year-Book of Pharmacy for 1870, with the Proceedings of the 

 British Pharmaceutical Conference ' held at Liverpool last year, has 

 reached us. It forms a volume of some GOO pages, filled with a very 

 niiscellaneous assemblage of papers and notes on all subjects connected 

 with the materia medica in its largest sense, both British and foreign, 

 and will be found worthy of perusal by botanists as well as pharma- 



