352 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



' Sulla vegetazioiie della Sicilia orientale.' — A. Colozza, ' Anatomia 

 delle Alstroemeriee.' — G. Bargagli-Petrucci, ' Cavita stomatifere 

 del gen ere Ficus.' 



Oesterr. Bot. i^a^sc/in/i (Sept.).— K. Genau, ' Ueber die Entwick- 

 liiug von Sauromntum (/uttatum.' — J. Velenovsky, * Abnprmale Bliiten 

 der Forsj/thia viridissima.'' — E. Hackel, ' Neiie Graser.' — A. Zahl- 

 bruckner, ' Vorarbeiten zu einer Flechtenflora Dalmatieiis ' (concl.). 

 — J. Freyn, ' Plant^e Karoans Amuriccne et Zeaens^e.' — A. v. Hayek, 

 ' Flora von Steiermark ' (cont.). 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, dc, 



William Mathews, who died at Tiinbridge Wells on the 5th of 

 September, was born at Hagley, near Birmingham, on Sept. 10, 

 1828. He was educated at King's College, London, and at St. John's 

 College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. He then returned to 

 Birmmgham and joined the firm of land surveyors of which his 

 father was the head. Mathews took up botany at Cambridge under 

 Babington, whose Journal contains numerous references to ex- 

 cursions undertaken in his company. A note on North Wales 

 botany from his pen appeared in the Phi/tolo(jist in 1853, and he 

 contrilDuted various notes to this Journal between 1871 and 1895, 

 the most important being his notes on Worcestershire plants 

 (Journ. Bot. 1881, 38-41) and on Alcheniilla conjuncta (Id. 1881, 91). 

 He contributed an account of the flora of the Clent Hills to a little 

 book entitled Clentine R'onbles, published in 1868; and a paper 

 read before the Birmingham Philosophical Society on the Flora of 

 Algeria, considered in relation to the physical history of the Medi- 

 terranean region and the supposed submergence of the Sahara — 

 the outcome of Mathews's visit to that country in the autumn of 



1876 was printed in its Transactions, and subsequently appeared 



in book form. His help is acknowledged by Mr. Bagnall in his 

 Flora of Warwickshire, and by Edwin Lees, with whom he was 

 intimately acquainted, in the Botani/ of Worcestershire; he presented 

 a collection of Worcestershire plants to Queen's College, Birmingham. 

 Mathews was one of the founders and an early president of the Alpine 

 Club, and did a great deal of work in connection with early moun- 

 taineering discovery. He made the first passage of some of the 

 most notable "cols" in the Zermatt district, and was the first to 

 accomplish the ascent of Monte Viso. With two other members of 

 the Alpine Club, he received from Victor Emmanuel the Order of 

 St. Maurice and St. Lazare, in appreciation of his geographical 

 discoveries in the Italian Alps. Mathews was a Fellow of the 

 Geographical Society, and enjoyed the friendship of many eminent 

 men'' of science, particularly of those interested in alpine research, 

 such as the late Professor Tyndall and Principal James David 

 Forbes. He was a contributor to the first series of Peaks, Passes, 

 and Glaciers, edited by John Ball; and he wrote for the Alpiiie 

 Journal interesting papers on hypsometry— the measurement of 

 altitudes by barometrical pressure. 



