298 tup: journal of botany 



terrifyinsf prospect to a beginner, to whom a few grains of personal 

 observation are worth a ton of Hterature. 



Mrs. Arber is to be congratulated on a pioneer work which will 

 prove indispensable to the botanical student, as it ma}^ be also stimu- 

 lating to a wide range of nature-students, following in the footsteps 

 of Brunfels, whose sixteenth-century study of JSfuphar has been 

 utilized as a frontispiece. It is written in simple and graceful style, 

 and is nicely printed ; a special feature is found in the large number 

 of figures, carried out in line-work, with often decorative treatment. 

 Possibly one will get used in time to the price of recent publications 

 of the Cambridge Press. 



A. H. C. 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 



John Reader Jackson, who died at his residence at Lympstone, 

 Devon, on Oct. 28, at the age of 83, was for forty- three years Curator 

 of the Kew Museums. Born at Chelsea on May 2(5, 1837, he went 

 at an early age with his family to Canterbury. Here he became 

 keenly interested in architecture, and in 1851 came to London with 

 a view to taking up this as a profession. He Avas greath' befriended 

 by Professor Thomas Bell, who introduced him to various folk of 

 importance, among whom was Sir William Hooker, who in 1858 

 appointed him to the Museums in succession to Alexander Smith, who 

 had retired through ill-health ; in this post he remained until his 

 retirement in 1001. Jackson's arrival at Kew synchronized with 

 that of Oliver, who was at that time employed in the Herbarium of 

 which he afterwards became Keeper, and who showed him much 

 kindness, coaching him in botany, with which Jackson was compara- 

 tively unacquainted. One of the most amiable of men. Jackson's 

 readiness to help all who asked his assistance has been suitably recog- 

 nized in all the notices of him that have appeared, as well as in 

 numerous books whose authors he had supplied with information. 

 My own acquaintance with him began as soon as I arrived at Kew in 

 1869, and at once became intimate ; we had many interests in 

 common, and we continued to exchange letters almost up to his death. 

 Devoted to his work, of which the Kew Museums remain a monument, 

 he found time to contribute many papers and notes to numerous 

 periodicals, including this Journal : in 1877 he published a new 

 edition of Barton & Castle's Flora Medica, and in 1890 a volume 

 on Oomniercial Bottniy. He also prepared the first edition of the 

 Official Guide to the Kew Museums and assisted Oliver in the later 

 issues. In 1868 he was elected an Associate of the Linnean Society. 

 A portrait, with an appreciative notice, will be found in the Jounial 

 affile Kew Giuhl for 1902.— J. B. 



William Harris, who died in Kansas City on the 11th of last 

 October, was born at Enniskillen, Ireland, on loth November, 1860. 

 In 1879 he went as gardener to Kew, and in 1881 recommended 

 by the Director to take charge of King's House Garden, Jamaica, 

 under Mr. (now Sir) Daniel Morris, at that time Director of Public 

 Gardens and Plantations. In 1887, when I succeeded Sir D. Morris, 

 Harris was in charo-e of Castleton Botanic Garden ; he served as 



