SCIENTIFIC PAPERS OF ASA GRAY. 



121 



Sciadium Arbuscula A. Braun. — A note appeared in the 

 ' Scottish Naturalist' for last January on the occurrence of this 

 plant at two localities in N.E. Scotland, in which Mr. John Roy 

 states that "this, as far as I can make out, is the first time it 

 has been found in Britain." I believe Mr. Roy is the first to give 

 a definite station for it ; I can add another, as in the early part of 

 last summer I found fine examples of it on Myriophyllum from 

 Crummock Water. — Wm, West. 



Crepis fcetida L. in Northamptonshire. — In Morton's ' Nat. 

 Hist, of Northamptonshire,' p. 364, 1712, he states : — " Of the 

 plants described by botanists, but not known by Mr. Ray to be 

 natives of our island, and therefore not noted in his ' Synopsis,' 

 we may be assured the following is one, viz., Hieracium Apulum 

 fiore Suave rubenti, Col. : the Hieracium annuum Amirjdalas amaras 

 olens, D. Bobarti. This herb Mr. Bobart, the worthy Professor of 

 Botany at Oxford, informs me he himself found in Northampton- 

 shire, somewhere between Towcester and Whittlebury Forest, the 

 particular place he could not recollect." An examination of the 

 plants collected by the younger Bobart showed that there still 

 exists a specimen labelled as above by Bobart, but unlocalised, 

 which is Crept* fcetida, a plant not since recorded for the county. 

 Dr. Lightfoot's (circa 1790) locality in Oxfordshire for the same 

 plant is also lacking recent confirmation. — G. C. Druce. 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Scientific Papers of Asa Gray. Selected by Charles Sprague 

 Sargent. Vol. II. — Reviews of Works on Botany and related 

 subjects, 1834-1887, pp. viii. 397. Vol. II.— Essays ; Bio- 

 graphical Sketches, 1841-1886, pp. 503. London : Macmillan. 

 Price £1. Is. 

 In these two handsome volumes we have an acceptable selection 

 from the scattered writings of the great American botanist who was 

 taken from us little more than two years since, and a fitting 

 memorial of their illustrious author. These writings, extending 

 over more than half a century, are grouped by Prof. Sargent, who 

 has fittingly undertaken the editorship of these selections, into four 

 divisions : — Contributions to systematic botany ; works of a purely 

 educational character ; critical reviews and biographies ; and the 

 series of papers "which owe their existence to the discussions 

 which followed the publications of Mr. Darwin's ' Origin of 

 Species.' " The first two are not republished, their essence 

 having been already incorporated in later works, and the last 

 group were reissued by their author in the interesting and 

 insufficiently known work entitled ' Darwiniana.' The present 

 volumes are therefore devoted to the third group of the four 

 indicated above. 



Prof. Sargent tells us that the selection of the articles for re- 

 publication has been "an embarrassing and difficult task," and we 

 can well believe it. Few men have written so long and so well as 



