73()Ok-?s^otp:s, news, etc. 159 



Suininerhaycs : the observations on plants occupy iive pages and 

 conHrm those lately placed before the Linnean Society by Mr. John 

 Walton (see p. 120). 



We have received the first volume (March) o£ Ewinre 'Forei.lrij 

 (Macniillan : 4s. n.), the Journal of; the Empire Forestry Association, 

 which was inaugurated at the Guildhall in November last. It is a 

 well-printed illustrated book of 124 pages, containing papei's on 

 Forestry in various parts of the Em])ire, including Canada, Australia, 

 and India. Mr. F. 11. S. Balfour writes on the Douglas Fir Flagstaff 

 at Kew, of which he suggested the sending ; Mr. 8. M. Edwai-des 

 discusses "Tree Worship in India"; there are numerous editorial 

 notes, and a bibliography of Forestry for 1920-21 — altogether an 

 interesting volume. 



Notes from the Botanical School of Trinity College, Diihlin 

 (iii. no. 3: March), include papers on *'Heat produced during Inver- 

 sion of Sucrose " and " Phytosynthesis and the Electronic Theory," 

 by H. H. Dixon and N. G. Ball ; " Factors affecting Hydrogen Ion 

 Concentration of Soil" and ''The Hydrogen Ion Concentration of 

 Plant Cells," by W. K. G. Atkins. 



The Hundred of Wirral, occupying a peninsula between the 

 estuaries of the Mersey and the Dee, merits treatment as a floristic 

 area separate from the Liverpool district. In The Mtiscinece of the 

 Wirral, by W. A. Lee and W. G. Travis (Lane, and Ches. Naturalist, 

 xiv. 1921), is to be found a history of all the local bryojDhytes. The 

 physical geography of the area is discussed, and lists are given of 

 the principal species found on peaty heaths, shore clay banks, and 

 dune tracts. Important changes have occurred since F. P. Marrat 

 made his records seventy years ago : the dune slacks have dried up, 

 causing the disappearance of aquatic species ; the resident population 

 has vastly increased, and the smoke nuisance has exterminated many 

 species, especially corticolous. In the list 183 mosses and 47 

 hepatics (exclusive of varieties and forms) are recorded; and, of 

 these, 45 mosses and 9 hepatics are alreadj^ extinct. — A. G. 



A MERTi>^Cr of the British Mycological Society was held at Cam- 

 bridge on Saturday, March 18tli. The papers were :— Mrs. M. N. 

 Kidd, "Diseases of Apples in Storage"; Mr. J. Line, "The Para- 

 sitism of Nectria ciiinaharina'''' \ Mr. K. C. Mehta, "Observations 

 on the Occurrence of Wheat Rusts near Cambridge " ; and Messrs. F. 

 T. Brooks and G. Hansford, '• Mould Growths on Cold Store Meat." 

 All the papers described investigations which have been carried out 

 in the very active Mycological Department of the Botany School at 

 Cambridge. 



The vacancy in the Professorship of Botan}^ at Edinburgh and the 

 offices connected therewith has been filled by the appointment of 

 Mr. William Wright Smith, who has for some years occupied the post of 

 Assistant Keeper. Born in Dumfriesshire in 1875, he graduated as 

 M.A. at Edinburgh, and in 1902 joined the botanical staff of the 

 Universit}'. In 1907 Mr. Wright Smith was appointed to the charge of 

 the Government Herbarium at Calcutta ; in 1908 he acted as Director 

 of the Botanical Survey of India, and in 1911 became acting superin- 



