BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 119 



formation which covers the southern portion and occurs in larger or 

 smaller areas throughout the island. The climate is mesothermic ; 

 the rainfall is relatively abundant, but owing to evaporation and the 

 porous nature of the soil, many parts of the country have an arid 

 appearance. The flora is rich, and the proportion of endemic forms 

 exceptionally high. The relative proportions of the different families 

 of flowering plants in the present collection are very similar to those 

 recently worked out by Mr. Cruillaumin for the flora as a whole, the 

 four families which contain the highest number of species being in 

 each case JEwpliorhiacecd, Rahiacece, Orchidacece, and Myrtacece. 

 The main aflinities of the flora are with Indo-Malaya and South-East 

 Australia, the former represented chiefly in the forest regions and 

 the latter in the scrub and savannah regions ; and a study of it 

 suggests that New Caledonia is a very ancient land mass which has 

 been isolated for a very long period. 



In common with all kindred bodies, the Linnean Society has had 

 to face the altered condition of alfairs created by the War, and with a 

 view to meeting the emergency the Council has suggested certain 

 measures which were submitted to the meeting of the Society on 

 March 18 and adopted. The most important of these is the increase 

 of the annual subscription from £3 to £4: the decision of the 

 Council was arrived at with reluctance, but the economies already 

 adopted, including the suspension of the TransactionSy have proved 

 inadequate to meet the growing expenses. 



The Flora of the District of Columhia and Vicinity, by A. S. 

 Hitchcock and Paul C. Standley, ** with the assistance of the 

 botanists of Washington " forms Vol. 21 of the Contributions from 

 the U.S. National Museum. It consists of a series of keys — the 

 first to the families, based mainly on vegetative characters, followed 

 by one based mainly on floral characters ; under each order is a 

 key to to the genera and under each genus a key to the species followed 

 by a list with notes as to habitat, distribution, etc. *' The nomencla- 

 ture is in accord with the American Code of Botanical Nomenclature, 

 except that so-called duplicate binomials are not used " : some 

 of the names wall be unfamiliar to British botanists^ — thus Barharea 

 is superseded by Campe of Dulac, with G. verna (Michx.) Heller, 

 C. stricta L. (Andrzej.) W. F. Wight, and G. Barharea L. (W, 

 F. Wight) as the names of our three species. There is a very full 

 glossaiy and a single index with 42 plates, mostly of individual 

 plants. No use is made of the page-headings, which throughout give 

 merely the title of the volume —even the glossary is headed " Flora of 

 the District of Columbia " ! The Flora contains 646 genera and 

 1630 species. 



The recent Bulletins of the Philippine Department of Forestry 

 contain Philippine Bamboos (no. 15), with 33 plates: Philip- 

 fine Forest Products as Sources of Paper Pulp (no. 16) ; and 

 descriptions of the species of Philippine Mangrove Siva^nps 

 (no. 17) with 47 plates, which include figures of the ant-inhabited 

 Myrmecodia and Rydnophytum and of Polypodium sinuatum, also 

 ant-inhabited. Dr. W. H. Brown and Mr. A. F. Fisher, of the 

 Bureau of Forestry, are jointly responsible for the three Bulletins. 



