BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 245 



The Kew Bidlefin (Xo. 2) contains a long and interesting 

 biography of the hite Sir .lohn Kirk, by tlie Diiector of the Gardens ; 

 a revision of the " Serrato-ciliata " group of Tropcaolum, by Miss 1). 

 K. Hughes, with four excellent tigures, inchides full descriptions of 

 82 species, of which half are new; Dr. E. .1. Butler gives an account 

 of "Phytopathology in the United States." The number also contains 

 the address present<?d by the Kew statf to Sir David Prain on his 

 retirement. — To No. 8 Mr. Sprague contributes a revision of Amor- 

 euxia with six species (two new) and a plate of the seeds ; Mr. Ridley 

 describes new species of ll'ujiolepi^ and Vacciminn from Borneo; 

 Mr. Hutchinson amplihes the description of T. K. Sim's genus 

 Hcywoodia, of which a figure is given ; the "Decades Kewenses " are 

 continued ; and Mr. W. B. Turrill begins a series of notes on Cyper- 

 accce, in which he deals with a complicated question of nomen- 

 clature in the genus Fifcrenti: there is a notice of tlie late J. F. Duthie, 

 with bibliography, by Mr. J. S. Gamble. — No. -1 contains a revision 

 of Canavalia, by C. V. Piper and S. T. Dunn, in which the Old 

 World spe(;ies, IG in number (five new), are dealt with, the distri- 

 bution ])eing very fully given : C. H. Lankester gives an account of a 

 visit to Mt. Elgon, Uganda ; and new species from Mount Everest 

 of Aconitiim, Taiiacetum, Aiidrosace, Prnnula, Gentiana, and I)raco- 

 Cf'phalum are described by various botanists. 



TiiE long years of work devoted by Prof. Setchell and his 

 colleagues to the study of the marine alga? of California are now 

 yielding a harvest of publications. In Fhi/cohc/ical Contributions 

 IT. to IF., by W. A. Setchell and N. L. Gardner ( University of 

 California Publications, Botany, vii. 1922, pp. 388-426, pis. 82-41)) 

 iifty-four new species and twenty-one new forms of small brown 



alga3 are described and figured. The genera concerned are six : ■ 



3Iyrionema, Compsonema, Hecatonenia, Fylaiella, Sfrebionema, 

 Ectocarpus. The distuictive characters of the first three are 

 emphasized. Myrioneina has a monostromatic basal disc composed 

 of crowded branched filaments radiating from a common centre ; from 

 almost every cell of these arises an erect filament, either fertile (with 

 zoosporangia or gametangia) or occasionally sterile ; and the loculi of 

 the gametangia are uniseriate. In Compsonema the loculi of the 

 gametangia are ])luriseriate. In Hecatonema the base is distromatie, 

 and the gametangial loculi are pluriseriate. A new order (Ectocarpales ^ 

 is defined, and the diameters b}^ which it diifers from Cutleriales, 

 Sphacelariales, Laminariales, and Dictyosiphonales, are briefly indi- 

 cated. Algologists are much indebted to the authors for this 

 excellent piece of work with its clear descri2)tions and fio-ures and 

 critical notes. — A. G. 



In the Orcliid Review for July, Mr. J. Eamsbottom has an 

 ai'ticle on " Germination of Orchid Seeds " — a reply to Pi-pf. L. Knud- 

 son's paper on " Nonsymbiotic germination of oVchid seeds," which 

 api)eared in the Botanical Gazette for January. The American 

 author, working with Cattleya and Lctlia, was able to germinate the 

 seeds in the jn-esence of soluble organic substances and sugars without 

 the intervention of the root fungus ; from his experiments Knudson 

 held that "'the evidence for the necessity of the fungus for '>-ermin- 



