BOTANICAL NEWS. 381 



On tlie death of Dr. Williams, in 1834, Dr. Dnubeny was elected to 

 the professorship, and immediately proceeded still further to improve, 

 and, indeed, remodel the garden. So eaoer was the Professor to com- 

 mence operations, and so anxious was the Curator to carry out his views, 

 that, as we have heard, on the very first nii^ht of his appointment, the 

 Professor and Curator, lantern in hand, proceeded to the garden, and 

 then and there projected much of the alterations that were subsequently 

 carried into effect, and which, with modifications introduced by the pre- 

 sent Curator, have rendered the Oxford Garden, for its linuted size, so 

 complete an establishment, . . . 



Mr. Baxter had accumulated an extensive library of botanical works, 

 wliich we presume will now be dispersed. — Gardeners Chronicle. 



Dr. Engelraann, of St. Louis, who has studied the genus carefully for 

 many years, has just pidjlished an important paper on the classification of 

 the Yucca. In the first place he makes a new genus, wliich he calls 

 Hesperaloe, for a plant first described by Torrey as a doubtful Yucca 

 under the specific name of parvifiora, and afterwards by Gray as an Aloe 

 under the name of ynccrefolia. This has entirely the general iiabit of 

 Yucca, but ditlers by its perianth-segments joined at the base, and peri- 

 gynous not hy|)ogynous filaments. Considering that Aloe is an exclu- 

 sively African genus, nearly restricted to the Cape, this is probably the 

 best settlement of the matter. The genus Yucca, as thus restricted, he 

 divides into two subgenera, Eni/ucca and Hesperoyncca, the former witli 

 papillose and the latter with smooth filaments. Hesperoyucca is repre- 

 sented only by Y. JlliippJci of Torrey, a plant only known in England 

 by very imperfect herbarium specimens. Euyucca he divides into three 

 groups, founded on the fruit, — Snrcocarpa, with ruminate albumen, and a 

 sweet, fleshy fruit like a fig {Y. baccula, Torrey) ; Clistocarpa, with inde- 

 hiscent fruit and entire albumen ; and Chenocarpa, with a three-valved 

 septicidal capsule. Considering how important a character the texture of 

 the fruit gives in LUiacere, it is of great interest to find such a range 

 here in combination with absolute uniformity in floral structure. 



The third volume of Mr. Miers's ' (Contributions to Botany ' contains a 

 complete monograph of the siiiandar and extensive Order Menispcrmacere. 

 The author, who had previously devoted many years of study to the 

 investigation of the strnctiUH- of the group, first gave a sketch of his pro- 

 posed classification in 1851 in tiie Annals of Nat. Hist., and subse- 

 quently in tiie same publication, from 1864 to 1867, published the 

 descriptive matter which is now collected into one volume. No less 

 than 63 genera and 337 species are enumerated and minutely described 

 with that attention to the less obvious characters of the fruit and seed 

 which distinguishes all Mr. Miers's work, and the text is supplemented by 

 67 quarto plates, all drawn from specimens by the author iiimself, and 

 full of information to botanists. The volume must be considered one of 

 the most important additions to botanical literature lately published. ' 



We are glad to know that the Rev. R. T. Lowe's 'Manual Flora of 

 Madeira ' is in active progress, and that a fourth part, carrying on the 

 enumeration to the end of the Lahiatre, will shortly appear. 



The fourth part, completing the volume (27th) of the ' Transactions of 

 the Linnean Society ' has been issued. It contains two important 



