-BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC." 299 



Superintendent in each of the five Gardens in the island, and was 

 always thorough in his work, and a most loyal and helpful assistant. 

 In iocs, on my retirement, Harris was made Superintendent of 

 Public Gardens under the De})artment of Agriculture ; in 1917 he 

 was made Government Botanist, and in 1920 Assistant Director. 

 He distinguished himself as a collector of specimens for the local 

 Herbarium, and I gave him every opportunity to devote himself ^ to 

 this work. He spent his holidays in collecting tours, thus becoming 

 acquainted with the flora in every part of the island. His journeys 

 were sometimes arduous, and often lasted for several days in the 

 bush ; frequently the only shelter he could get at night w^as a negro's 

 hut. In the last letter l' received from him, dated Gth August, 1920, 

 he told me that he had had a break-down in health, and was compelled 

 to go on three months' sick leave. Later I heard that a trouble in the 

 throat of which he had complained was cancer, and he had gone to 

 the United States to consult a specialist : he went to his eldest son's 

 home in Kansas City, Avhere he died in hospital. By his death 

 botanical exploration 'in Jamaica has suffered a severe loss, and I lose 

 a personal friend who has always been very helpful, and particularly 

 of late years in my work on the Flora of Jamaica. Harris is com- 

 memorated in the genera llarrisia (CactaccEe)^ and _ Harrisella 

 (Orchidacea3), and in the specific names of many of his discoveries. — 

 W. Fawcett. 



In a handsome vohnue issued by Messrs. longmans. Professor 

 Geddes has published an account of The Life and Work of Sir 

 Ja(/a(Iis a Bose, with portraits and illustrations (16s. net). Notices 

 of Bose's earlier \\oy\^— Plant Besponse as a means of Physiological 

 Investigation and Besponse in the Livincj and A^o;«-in' my— appeared 

 in this Journal for 1903 (p. 28) and 1906 (p. 245) ; his later books 

 on the irritability of plants and on their life -movements are sum- 

 marized by Professor Geddes, who also gives an account of Bose's 

 other observations. To many the most interesting portion of the 

 volume will be the narrative' of the struggles for recognition that 

 ended triumphantly in May last in Bose's election as a Fellow^ of the 

 Royal Society, which, tw^enty years before, had rejected the paper 

 containing his first results in plant response. The endeavour to 

 deprive Bose of the credit of his researches, as presented by him, after 

 the Eoyal Society's rejection, to the Linnean Society is not pleasant 

 reading ; Professor Geddes, who expresses the indignation generally 

 felt at'^the period, must have been sorely tempted to give the name, 

 which however many will be able to supply, of the physiologist who 

 claimed to have anticipated Bose. The account of Bose's early 

 struggles and later travels is written from personal knowledge ni 

 the graphic style of w^hich his biographer is a master, and the book, 

 apart from its^cientific value, is very interesting reading. 



At the meeting of the Linnean Society on Nov. 4, Mr. H. N. 

 Dixon communicated a paper on " The Mosses of the Wollaston 

 Expedition to Dutch New Guinea." These mosses were not described 

 with the higher plants, but have since be^n worked out and have 

 proved of great interest. Although consisting of only some 60 gather- 

 ings, the collection contained types of at least two new genera. 



