188 THE JOUKXAL OF IJOTAXY 



in a preliininajT paper on " Sv)mo Information on the Heredity of 

 Imniunitv from Wart Disease." The remaining papers deal with 

 diseases. The first by V. H. Blackman on *' The nature of immunity 

 from Wart Disease " occupies little more than half a page, but gives 

 the essential points of Curtis's investigations on the life-history of 

 Synchi/triiiniendiohioficum : the second by W. B. Brierley on " Sonu 

 research aspects of the Wart Disease Problem" might with advantage 

 have been somewhat similarly restricted. G. H. Pethybridge's paper 

 on " Some recent work on the Potato Blight," summarises the work 

 on the discovery of the oospores of Phytophtliora and the results 

 obtained during the last two decades on means of combatting the 

 disease. This is followed by H. M. Quanjer's paper " New work on 

 Leaf-curl and allied Diseases in Holland," which is the most valuable 

 in the Report ; it is well supplemented by P. A. Murphy's " Some 

 recent work on Leaf -roll and Mosaic." A. D. Cotton summarises 

 " The situation with regard to Leaf-curl and Mosaic in Britain," and 

 W. A. Orton o-ives an interesting account of " New work on Potato 

 Diseases in America." It was not to be expected that all aspects of 

 the subject could be treated at such a conference, but one would 

 have thouo-ht, if blight were to be considered at all, a discussion on 

 spraying would have been useful. 



Speaking of the papers as a whole, we think the editor would 

 have been well advised to have deleted the vast amount of padding 

 which occurs in some of them, particularly as much " of this was 

 omitted- at the conference itself. The re-reading of what Mosaic is, 

 for example, gives one the feeling of having been through a course 

 of Coue ; and one would have thought that there was no need for a 

 description of starch and similar matters of common knowledge. 

 ?J isprints are far too numerous, and errors of initials and titles are not 

 a])sent. Each author seems to have been given a free hand as to how 

 he should label his figures or plates, but all are consistent in their 

 spelling of " potatos." It is to be hoped that there will be more such 

 conferences, but that they will be more representative. Doubtless 

 manv scientific bodies would be pleased to assist in the various ways 

 opan*^ to them to make the meetings a success ; attention might, 

 moreover, be called to the continued existence of the British Museum 



( Natural History). 



J. Ramsbottom. 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 



Charles Macintosh, one of the old type of naturalist, passed 

 away at Inver, Perthshire, on January 5th of this year. ^ In early life he 

 had been a sawmiller, but having one of his hands mutilated he had to 

 change his occupation and became a rural postrunner between Dunkeld 

 and Balnagned. On the botanical excursion of the British Associa- 

 tion to Dunkeld last year, Mr. W. Barclay and Mr. J. R. Matthews 

 kindly invited me to accompany them on a visit to Macintosh, and 

 we called at the lowlv Inver cottage in which he was born in 1839, 

 and in which he lived until shortly before his death ; a living room 

 in which the ]irincipal items were a "harmonium with some manuscript, 



