PERIODICAL PITBLICATI0N8 241 



the names of contributors are indexed, but no indication of their 

 contributions is given. There are some classified entries, but these 

 rightly stand in their places in the alphabetical order. The Bulletin 

 of the Torreij Club follows the far less convenient plan of having three 

 indexes — one, styled "contents" is a list of papers under the names 

 of their authors, and follows the title-page; the others — "subject 

 index" and "generic index" — come at the end of the volume. 

 For general inconvenience this is a good second to the Annals of 

 Botany, especially with regard to genera. Every reference to a 

 genus, however incidental, is indexed, but no species, not even 

 new ones, are entered ; so that, for example, in order to find what 

 new Alliums have been described in the volume, twelve references 

 have to be made, where one would be sufficient if the sensible plan 

 of the Botanical Gazette were adopted. Pittonia has an excellent 

 index of the plants described in its volumes, but the " contents " 

 are arranged on no plan (or on several plans ?), such words as 

 "On," " The," "A," and " Some" standing first in the entries, which 

 are not alphabetical. 



The index to the Bulletin de la SociSte Botanique cle France is apt 

 to be long delayed, and errs by division ; thus in vol. xliii. we have 

 " Comptes rendus des Seances," arranged by dates ; then an alpha- 

 betical list of the names of authors, with no indication of their 

 work ; then a list of books noticed, arranged under authors' names ; 

 and finally a list of names of plants. In spite of this elaboration, 

 it is practically impossible to find certain papers in the index with- 

 out wading through the six pages of "Comptes rendus": even 

 headings which one would expect to see under names of plants — 

 e. g. Prof. Van Tieghem's "Classification des Loranthees " — are not 

 to be found there, and of course a paper " sur la division du noyau 

 cellulaire " can only be traced in the " comptes rendus," unless one 

 knows the name of the author. The Bulletin de V Herbier Boissier 

 (vol. vii.) has an index of authors and one of the names of plants, 

 but none of subjects ; so that, unless one knew the name of the 

 author, it would be difficult to find that anything had been pub- 

 lished on the " dissemination des graines par les poissons." This 

 Bulletin publishes certain appendixes, the plants of which are 

 included in the index ; but, as the former are paged separately and 

 bound after the index, reference to them is not easy. The Journal 

 de Botanique has (1) a list of articles arranged by the names of 

 authors ; (2) a list of plates ; (3) a " table alphabetique generale 

 des matieres," — no fewer than seven papers stand under "sur," 

 and others under " le," "la," and "les"; (4) an index of the 

 names of plants — four lists where one would serve. 



Prof. Engler's Botanische Jahrbllcher holds among foreign peri- 

 odicals the pre-eminence for a useless index which is attained by the 

 Annals of Botany among periodicals written in English. A list of 

 the papers arranged under authors' names in order of publication, 

 filling barely a page, is considered an adequate guide to the contents 

 of a volume of more than 700 pages ! In this case the inconvenience 

 is accentuated by the fact that the volume before us — vol. xxviii. — 

 is almost entirely occupied by systematic papers, including the 



