Sl2 OBITUARY NOTICES. 



exotic origin, we might have supposed that this peculiar form wag 

 the Brazilian representative of the true plant of the Antilles. But 

 the fact that the form occurs in Key Island (which is its locus 

 classicns), close to the coast of Florida, and that it there grows 

 alongside of the typical plant, renders such an explanation un- 

 satisfactory. The last attempt to suhdivide the plant has been 

 from the size of its flowers. This was first done by Bourgeau in 

 his PlantcE Canarienses exsicc. ; the true plant was issued by him as 

 A. mexicana, the large -flowered form as A. mexicana var. odiroleuca. 

 But his large-flowered form (which, by the way, is the only one 

 reported from St. Helena) is not the same as A. odiroleuca Sweet ; 

 it has exactly the fruit of the typical plants in the herbaria of 

 Tournefort, Linnasus, and Lamarck. The same subdivision has 

 again been proposed by Dr. Otto Kuntze, who breaks up A. mexicana 

 into two subspecies, «. lutea and /3. albijiora, further separating 

 from subsp. lutea a var. parvljiora. It is not clear from this 

 citation, though it seems probable, that 0. Kuntze's ^' lutea" is a 

 melange of all the yellow-flowered forms of Anjewone; it is, however, 

 plain that he has misunderstood their synonymy, since an exami- 

 nation of Tournefort's and Linuaeus's specimens shows that the 

 true A. mexicana is Kuntze's A. mexicana a,, lutea var. parvijiora. 

 The subdivision is, however, impossible ; any one who cares to look 

 for them may find both forms in the same patch, sometimes on the 

 same plant, of A . mexicana as it grows in India. 

 (To be continued.) 



OBITUARY NOTICES. 



Of Thomas Heney Huxley, the eminent biologist (who was born 

 at Ealing, May 4th, 1825, and died at Eastbourne, June 29th), 

 numerous biographies have appeared. His claim to a passing 

 mention here will be found in the interesting paper entitled "The 

 Gentians : Notes and Queries," which (with a plate drawn by 

 himself) will be found in J own. Linn. Soc. xxiv. 101-124 (1887). 

 In his prefatory remarks he says : " It is well-nigh forty years 

 since I occupied myself with systematic botany," 



Frederick Kitton was born at Cambridge in 1826 or 1827, 

 and came to Norwich in 1845. He was in business as a retail 

 tobacconist, but early took up the study of Diatoms, in connection 

 with which his name is familiar. He published numerous papers, — 

 twenty are enumerated in the Royal Society's Catalogue, and a very 

 full list is given in De Toni's Sylloge AUjarum, — and we have been 

 informed that he assisted Count Castracane in the report on the 

 Diatomacea collected on the 'Challenger' expedition, though this is 

 not mentioned in the memoir. Kitton had a large correspondence 

 with microscopists at home and abroad, and was an Honorary 

 Fellov/ of the Eoyal Microscopical Society. He co-operated in the 

 bibliography of the Diatomacece in Mr. Deby's library. In 1886 

 Kitton published a series of slides— 50 in number — of Norfolk 



