118 THE JOrRNAL OF BOTANY 



supporting the claims of the wood-sorrel — first propounded, as Colgan 

 points out, by Bicheno in 1830-31, — stated that, "ancient writers all 

 agree that the shamrock was edible, and the wood-sorrel has been 

 eaten in Ireland from time immemorial ! " A correction of these and 

 other misstatements appears in the W. G. for March 23, and 

 there that paper leaves the matter, anticipating (no doubt correctly) 

 that "the discussion will break out again, somewhere about the 

 middle of next March ! " 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 



The Irish Naturalist for Nov.-Dec. 1919 contains a biography, 

 with portrait, of Nathaniel Colgan, whose death occurred on 

 Oct. 2. He was born in Dublin on May 28, 1851, and at an early 

 age obtained a clerkship in the Dublin Metropolitan Police Court, 

 from whose services he retired in 1916. Interested in general litera- 

 ture, Colgan took up botany in 1880, and later made the acquaintance 

 of A. Gr. More, Mr. Lloyd Praeger — the writer of the notice 

 referred to, — and Mr. R. W. Scully : his first botanical contribution 

 was a note on Saussurea alpina, printed in this Journal for 1885 

 (p. 157). In 1894 Colgan published his Flora of the County Duhliriy 

 and in 1898, in conjunction with Mr. Scully, the second edition of 

 the Cyhele Hibernica, based on the papers of More, who died in 

 1895 and by his will appointed the two botanists to complete the 

 work and see it through the press : both of these volumes are 

 admirably done ; the introduction to the former contains much 

 useful biographical information. Colgan contributed numerous papers 

 to the Irish Naturalist and some to this Journal ; among the 

 latter may be noted those on the occurrence of Artemisia Stelleriana 

 in Ireland (1S94!) and — in the same volume — a paper on "Henry 

 Mundy and the Shamrock " which was subsequently embodied in his 

 exceedingly interesting and exhaustive account of " The Shamrock in 

 Literature " published in Journ. E,. Soc. Antiquaries of Ireland for 

 1896. He took part in the Clare Island Survey set on foot by the 

 Royal Irish Academy in 1909, in whose Proceedings he published an 

 account of the plant and animal names in use in the island, with 

 their associated folk-lore. 



At the meeting of the Linnean Society on March 4, a communi- 

 cation was brought before the Society entitled " A Contribution to 

 our Knowledge of the Botany of New Caledonia " relating to the 

 collection made by Mr. R. H. Compton in New Caledonia and the 

 Isle of Pines during 1914. The specimens collected have been pre- 

 sented to the British Museum, and the greater part have been worked 

 out in the Department of Botany. Since his return, Mr. Compton 

 has been appointed Professor of Botany in the Cape Town University, 

 and Director of the new Botanic Gardens at Stellenbosch. Dr. 

 Rendle gave a short account of the position and physical characters of 

 the island ; and referred to previous work on its flora, and its general 

 characters. Important features are the igneous rocks which form a 

 mountain chain of gneiss in the north-east, and the serpentine 



