30 THE JOUllNAL OF BOTANY 



The publication of Wchbia, edited by Prof. Martelli of Pisa, 

 which has been suspended since 1914, has been resumed by the issue 

 of the first part of the fifth volume, which appeared towards the 

 end of last year. It contains a revision by the late Prof. Beccari (of 

 whom an excellent portrait and biography are given) of the Corj/phecB 

 of the Old World, with descriptions of new species ; and an account 

 by the same author of the Palms of New Caledonia, which includes 

 descriptions of new genera : three — DolicokeHtia, Biwynicn-tikentia^ 

 and Glinosperma — based on species of Cyplwkentia, and one {Rhyn- 

 cJwcarpa) on Gyphospenna Vielllardi: two others are established — 

 one, Neoveitcliia, from Viti, on Veitcliia StorcJcii, the other, Bent- 

 nickiopsis (sic) on Cypliokentia carolinensis, from the Caroline 

 Islands : the paper is illustrated by thirteen plates. Dr. Chiovenda, 

 under the title "La Culla del Cocco " makes a long and important 

 contribution " alia ricerca della patria originaria della Palma del 

 Cocco." While congratulating Prof. Martelli on the renewal of his 

 work, we venture to suggest that in future issues the WTapper should 

 contain, in accordance with usual practice, some indication of the 

 contents of the number, and that the headings of the pages, now 

 blank, should be devoted to some useful purj^ose. 



To the meeting of the Linnean Society on Dec. 1, Prof. W. 



Neilson Jones contributed a note on the occurrence of Brachiomonas, 

 which appeared last year in abundance in rain-water pools in an 

 empty lake in the grounds of Regent's Park College. This organism 

 had previously only been reported from brackish Avater at Sheerness, 

 Stockholm, and the Black Sea — an interesting problem arising as to 

 its introduction into the London area. 



At the same meeting, Mr. J. Burtt-Davy gave an account of 

 the distribution of Salix in South Africa. He remarked that con- 

 fusion of species in this region was partly due to the dimorphism 

 of the leaves, those of young shoots being often quite different from 

 the adult leaves. We can recognise in South Africa ten possible 

 species or varieties, and in tropical Africa twelve named species, only 

 one being common to both areas, a form characteristic of the Lim- 

 popo li-iver basin, but not crossing the Zambezi ; the other nine are 

 strictly endemic, mostly in very limited areas, so that cross-pollina- 

 tion is practically impossible. Usually each species is confined to one 

 particular drainage-basin ; where more than one species is found in 

 the same basin, now isolated by erosion, the streams were formerly 

 united. Thus the distribution of S. Woodii and S. yariepina 

 suggest a coast origin and subsequent ascent to the mountains follow- 

 ing the erosion of the streams ; had it originated on the Drakensberg, 

 the two could hardly have failed to reach the same drainage-basin, 

 as they now occur only fifty miles apart. >S'. Woodii may be the 

 connecting-link by way of Pondoland, the Transkei, and Eastern 

 Cape with S. Safsaf in Rhodesia. Although the Orange River is 

 now isolated from Angola by the wastes of the Kalahari, it is possible 

 that these three species, or a common ancestor, came down from the 

 north during the time when the Cunene discharged into the Orange 



