28 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



are well drawn and carefulh^ coloured ; the species figured are mostly 

 endemic, and it is in these that the interest of the volume lies — sucli 

 common plants as Siellaria media and Cochlearia officinalis might, 

 we think, have been dispensed with. The plates show an intimate 

 acquaintance with the habits of the plants, and sometimes — e. g. 

 CaltJia sagittata — give two widely differing forms : there are also 

 useful dissections of the flovvei-s. Mrs. Vallentin had originallj' in- 

 tended to prepare '* an illustrated flora of her native land," but a 

 serious breakdown in health caused the indefinite postponement of 

 the plan, and it was therefore decided to issue the present volume, 

 for which the materials were already available. Mrs. Cotton's descrip- 

 tions are full and carefully drawn up ; and the volume, which is 

 admirably produced, is a useful and attractive addition to our know- 

 ledge of the flora of the Islands. 



It will, we think, be news to our readers, as it was to ourselves, 

 that the late Lord Salisbury, when a boy of about sixteen, was 

 interested in botany. During his life at Hatfield, after leaving Eton, 

 we learn from his recent biography that " he discovered at this 

 period one open-air interest — the study of botany — which appealed to 

 the scientific side of his nature and which remained with him through 

 life. He pursued it with characteristic thoroughness .... With a 

 packet of sandwiches in his pocket, he would range the country on 

 botanical excursions from morning till night, scrambling through or 

 over any obstruction that presented itself in his search for specimens. 

 On one occasion he was arrested as a poacher by the keeper of a 

 neighbouring squire, and only released after an exhaustive search of 

 his pockets and specimen-tin had failed to produce any damning 

 evidence of his guilt" {Life of Robert Marquis of Salishurij, by 

 his daughter Lady Gwendolen Cecil, vol. i. p. 17 (1921)). 



We are indebted to Mr. Robert Gurney for a copy of an interest- 

 ing paper on JJtricularia and its distribution in Norfolk, which 

 was contributed by Mr, W. G. Clarke and himself to the Trans- 

 actions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists'' Society for 

 1920-21 (vol. xi. pp. 128-161). After chapters on flowering and 

 distribution comes an interesting account of the turios or winter 

 buds and their germination, and of the structure, considered under 

 the heads of leaf-form, stomata, and bladders, each sj)ecies being 

 treated separately. Under "capture of prey," lists are given of 

 the animal contents of the bladders ; at the end is a useful biblio- 

 graphy. The paper is illustrated by six excellent plates. 



At the meeting of the British Mycological Society held at 

 University College, London, on Nov. 19th, there was a large 

 attendance of foreign and colonial phj^topathologists, who had been 

 visiting the International Potato Conference. Papers were read on 

 the use of fungicides on potatoes in North America, by Dr. G. \l. 

 Bisby ; the growth of fungi in cultures, by Dr. W. Brown ; an 

 Eocene microthyriaceous fungus from Mull, Scotland, by Mr. W. N. 



