344 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



lat. The lantern-slides from photographs taken during the two 

 years of collecting were lent by Mrs. Vallentin. 



The Physiological Institute of the Berlin University, which 

 was founded by Schwendener in 1878 and was situated in the 

 heart of the city, has been removed to Dahlem, opposite the 

 Botanic Garden. Professor G. Haberlandt, who is now head of 

 the Institute, delivered an inaugural address at the opening of the 

 new building on May 14th. The address is published as a twenty- 

 nine page pamphlet by Gebriider Borntraeger, Berlin, the price of 

 which is one mark. Haberlandt dealt with the place occupied l)y 

 Berlin botanists in the history of plant physiology. By 

 considering plant physiology in the widest possible sense and 

 botanists connected with Berlin in any way, a remarkable list is 

 given, including Wolff, Gleditsch, Link, Meyer, Sprengel, A. Braun, 

 Pringsheim and Schwendener. The special ways in which these 

 botanists influenced the study in general are briefly indicated. — J. R. 



The Proceedings of the Linnean Society from November, 1913, 

 to June, 1914, contains a full report of the paper by Dr. Lotsy 

 on " The Origin of Species by Crossing," of which we gave an 

 abstract on p. 175, and on the ensuing discussion in which Prof. 

 Bateson, Dr. Gates, Dr. Keeble, Prof. Dendy, Sir Francis Darwin, 

 Dr. Eendle, Prof. MacBride, Prof. Weiss, and others took part. 

 "The divergence of opinion expressed," said Dr. Lotsy at the end 

 of the discussion, " shows how little we really hnoio of evolution." 



The October number of the Journal of Genetics contains a 

 paper by Miss M. Wheldale on " Our Present Knowledge of the 

 Chemistry of the Mendelian Factors for Flower-colour." The 

 colour varieties of Antirrhimim majus have provided useful 

 material for the chemical interpretation of these, and an account 

 is given of the pigments of these, illustrated by coloured figures 

 of the excellence which is never absent from the plates of the 

 Journal. 



In the Dublin Review for October Mr. Britten gives an 

 account of Robert James, eighth Lord Petre (1712-1742), of whom 

 no detailed biography has hitherto appeared. A leading horti- 

 culturist of his time, whose " stoves " (hothouses) at Thorndon, 

 in Essex, were the wonder and delight of his contemporaries, 

 Petre was associated with the principal plant-collectors of his 

 period and did much to encourage them in their work : among 

 these were names of John Bartram, William Houstoun, Eichard 

 Eichardson, and especially Peter Collinson, to whom we are in- 

 debted for most of our knowledge of Petre, wnth wdiom he was on 

 terms of intimacy and afi'ection. Collinson brought the stoves to 

 the notice of Linnaeus, who adopted the name Petrea, already 

 suggested by Houstoun, for a well-knowm genus of Verhenacece. 

 Alton, in the Hortus Keioensis, attributes the introduction of 

 numerous plants to Petre ; he was, how'ever, more than a culti- 

 vator — he had an extensive botanical library and a large collec- 

 tion of specimens filling fourteen thick folio volumes ; this was 

 unfortunately destroyed at the sale of the library in 1885-6. 



