50 THE JOURNAL OP BOTANY 



Index Keiuensis Plantarum Phanerogaviarum Supplementuyn Quar- 

 tum Nomina et Synonyma ojnnium Generum et Specierum ah 

 initio anni mdccccvi usque ad finem anni mdccccx nonnulla 

 etiam antea edita complectens ductu et consilio D. Prain 

 confecemnt Herharii Horti Regii Botanici Kewensis Cura- 

 tores. Oxonii e Prelo Clarendoniano [Nov.] 1913. 4to, 

 cloth, pp. 1-252. Price £1 16s. 



Among the many works which issue from the Kew Herbarium, 

 it may be doubted whether any has proved of more universal 

 usefulness to phanerogamic botanists at large than the " Kew 

 Index," to adopt the title by which it is generally known. It is 

 therefore with much satisfaction that we receive the Fourth 

 Supplement, which brings the work down to the end of 1910, and 

 which, considering the arduous nature of the undertaking, has 

 been issued with reasonable promptitude. 



In a prefatory note Sir David Prain indicates certain altera- 

 tions which differentiate the present from the previous Supple- 

 ments, as well as from the body of the work ; this it may be well 

 to reproduce : — 



" Supplementum 4'"3i usque ad anni 1910 finem prolatum 

 ita expolire maluimus ut magis botanices studiosis valuisset 

 atque profecisset. Propositae consulto ad eum prsecipue adno- 

 tandae sunt immutationes infra enunciatse. Imprimis annum in 

 quo nomina edita sunt semper designatum est. Iterum nomina 

 antea usitata sub nomina nunc utenda recitata sunt ; nominibus 

 nudis inter synonyma enumeratis nomina accepta addita sunt. 

 Nomina hibridarum arte operatorum negleximus : denique, nomina 

 iam locis setate posterioribus perscripta et ex iis denuo memora- 

 vimus." 



Small as these alterations are, they are distinctly improve- 

 ments. The omission of dates of publication was, as we have more 

 than once pointed out, one of the few oversights which detracted 

 from the value of the Index and of its Supplements. We are glad, 

 by the way, to note that these are given in the right place, i. c. at 

 the end of the citation ("iv. 348 (1907) " ) instead of in the way 

 frequently employed of late years (" iv. (1907) 348 " ) — a method 

 which possesses no advantages and which, in the case of most 

 periodicals, is positively inaccurate and therefore misleading. It 

 is doubtless convenient that references to readily accessible works 

 should in many cases be added to those indicating place of first 

 publication, but it may be hoped that this will not lead to quota- 

 tions at secondhand, to which it seems somewhat to lend itself. 



The citation of names already given after those now printed 

 is presented in a new form : these are now preceded by a colon 

 instead of by the sign " =," which in the original work was 

 employed in more than one sense and was thus open to mis- 

 understanding. All names are now printed in the same type ; 

 the use of italics for synonyms is discontinued. The names of 

 garden hybrids, as to which in the Index there was some in- 

 consistency, " some being abolished and others retained," are now 

 entirely excluded : garden names, however, even when nomina 



