96 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



two of which are in dupUcate. This was followed by a reissue, in the 

 year 1722 or thereabout, of 168 plates with engraved numbers and 

 names of the plants altei'ed in some cases, but without title or text. 

 Pritzel enumerates 6 copies he has seen, and additional copies in the 

 same state exist in our own library, the Banksian collection in the 

 British Museum, and the Botanical Department of the Natural 

 History Museum ; the last-named copy wants 29 plates. In 1807, 

 Kafinesque, then living at Palermo, issued a prospectus of yet another 

 issue as Pamphysia Sicula, which is cited by Grussone, but apparently 

 no copy is known in this country. The single plate in this prospectus 

 is from an engraved plate, whereas the two earlier issues are from 

 etched jilates. A second volume shown by Dr. Jackson was the 

 anonymov;s L^ Hlstoire et Pourtrait des Plantes, Lyon, 1561. The 

 volume belonged to Linnaeus ; a pencil note on the titlepage by Smith 

 refers to an entry in Haller's Bihliotlieca Botniiica, i. 318, which 

 proves to be copied fi'om Adanson's Families des Plontes, i. p. 6, 

 where the book is described from Jussieu's library. Jussieu's copy is 

 given as published at Rouen in 1555, and attributed to Du Gort ; the 

 brothers Jean and Robert Du Gort were printers at Rouen at that 

 time, and probably drew up the volume from the Lyons issue of 

 Fuchs's Historia Stirpium of 1551, as 19 of the cuts are identical in 

 both books. At present no help in clearing up the points involved 

 has been obtained from Barbier's Ouvrages Aii07iymes, Querard's 

 La France Litteraire, nor has any copy been found in any biblio- 

 graphy or library answering to that shown, which seems to be unique. 



The Transactions of the Perthshire Societi/ of Natural Science 

 (vol. vi. part 4) contains some discursive " Botanical Notes," by 

 Mr. D. A. Haggart, and a summary of the work of the Society 

 during the fifty years of its existence by Mr. W. Barclay. 



At the meeting of the Royal Society on Jan. 31 Mr. A. Mallock 

 read a paper on "The Growth of Trees," in which an account was 

 given of some recent observations. These consisted in the measurement, 

 at short intervals of time, of the variation of the girth of the trees at 

 a height of four or five feet above the ground ; the measures were 

 made by an " interference " method which is described. The results 

 showed a well-marked daily period in the variation of girth, different 

 for different species of tree, but in all cases having a maximum at 

 night and a minimum shortly after noon. Diagrams of sets of obser- 

 vations, each extending over several days, are -included, showing the 

 gi'OAvth of a black poplar, an oak and a Douglas fir. From twenty to 

 thirty readings were taken in the course of each twenty-four hours. 



Ottk readers, and especially those through whose kindness the 

 serions deficit upon the volume for 1916 was met, will we think be 

 glad to know that the account for 1917 shows a comparatively small 

 loss, which indeed is more than met by the balance that remained 

 after the 1916 bill had been paid. This result is due to certain 

 economies which we were compelled to adopt, and also to an increase 

 — not large, but sufficient to affect the result — in the number of 

 subscribers : we need hardly say that we should be grateful for further 

 additions to the list. There has also been a gratifying absence of the 

 difiicvdties connected with production which during 1916 tried the 

 patience of Editor and subscribers alike. 



