884 BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 



A COMPLETE series of the British Mycetozoa, beautifully illus- 

 trated with water-colour drawings of generic types, has been 

 presented by Mr. Arthur Lister to the British Museum. It is 

 exhibited in the Botanical Gallery, and a Guide to the case, also 

 prepared by Mr. Lister, has been issued (price 3d.), containing 

 short descriptions of all British species, and woodcut illustrations 

 of the genera. 



Dk. Robert Brown, F.L.S., who died at Streatham on Oct. 26th, 

 was born on March 23rd, 1842, at Campster, Caithness. He com- 

 pleted his education in the University of Edinburgh, and afterwards 

 studied at Leyden, Copenhagen, and Rostock, from the last of 

 which he received the degree of Ph.D., his thesis being on North 

 American species of Thuja and Libocedrus. In 1B61 he visited 

 Jan Mayen, Spitzbergen, Greenland, and the western shores of 

 Baffin's Bay, discovering the now universally-admitted cause of 

 the discoloration of the Arctic Ocean ; his paper on this will be 

 found in this Journal for 1868, pp. 76-84. Between 1863-66 he 

 travelled in many of the least-known parts of America, and some 

 of the Pacific Islands, as botanist of the British Columbia Expedition 

 and commander of the Vancouver Island Exploring Expedition. 

 The scientific results of these journeys were published in British 

 and foreign journals. In 1867, in company with Mr. Edward 

 "Whymper, he visited Greenland, subsequently publishing an ac- 

 count of his voyage in Trans. Bot. Sue. FaHu. ix. 430-465, under 

 the title " Florula Discoana " ; this included a list, drawn up by 

 various botanists, of the plants which he collected. He resided for 

 some years in Scotland, holding various lectureships, and it was 

 during this time that he published his not very satisfactory Manual 

 of Botany (1874), which is noticed at some length in this Journal 

 for that year. In 1876 he came to London, since whicli time he 

 devoted himself to general literary work, for which he was well 

 fitted by his numerous travels and varied talents. His principal 

 contributions to botany were published in the Transactions of the 

 Botanical Society of Edinburgh, and include papers on the flora of 

 Caithness, and descriptions and observations on Thuja and Libocedrus. 

 In Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. vii. 240-255 (1871), he published descrip- 

 tions of new oaks, abbreviating his name, in accordance with the 

 suggestion of Alphonse DeCandolle, " R. Br. Campst.," the last 

 syllable referring to his place of birth : he had previously adopted 

 «' R. Br. Min." (see Trans. Bot. Soc. Ed. ix. 377, footnote). It may 

 be noted that he is doubly entered in the Royal Society's Catalogue 

 of Scientific Papers, the "Robert Brown" who appears second on 

 p. 661 of vol. i. being identical with the "Brown, Robert (Camp- 

 sterianus) " of vol. vii. 279. His name is commemorated by Aralia 

 Browniana (fossil), Verrucaria Campsteriana, and Lecidea Camp- 

 ster iana, and by Brown's Range and Brown's River in Vancouver 

 Island, and Cape Brown in Spitzbergen. 



We are glad to note that two local Scottish floras are announced 

 for early publication — Dr. Buchanan White's Flora of Perthshire, 

 which Prof. Trail will edit, and Mr. Scott Elliot's Flora of Dum- 

 friesshire, 



