BOOK-XOTES, NEWS, ETC. 303 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 



Clarej^ce BiCKJfELL, whose death occurred at his mountain 

 residence in Italy on July 17, was born in 1842 in a beautiful house 

 at Heme Hill, then a charming neighbourhood : his father, Elhanan 

 Bicknell, was a wealthy city merchant and a friend and patron of 

 Turner. From a very early age Clarence had a great love of Howers, 

 which he collected and painted. Educated at private schools, he 

 went to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated M.A. : later 

 he took Orders in the Church of England, and subsequently became 

 curate at St. Paul's, Walworth, then a centre of advanced Anglicanism, 

 where for many years he worked amongst the jioor with great zeal and 

 success. After this Bicknell joined an Anglican community at Stoke 

 in Shropshire ; when this broke up in 1879 he went to Bordighera, where 

 for two 3'ears he was chaplain to the English visitors ; here he bought a 

 house and settled for the rest of his life, giving up clerical work in 

 favour of scientific and artistic pursuits. In 188-5 Bicknell published 

 a quarto volume on the Floweriiir/ Plants and Ferns of the Riviera 

 and neighhouring 3Ioi/nfains, the idea of which was suggested by 

 J. T. Moggridge's Contributions to the Flora of Menfone (1864), 

 whose author had exhorted others to follow his example. The book 

 contains 80 plates, two or three species being figured on each, the 

 subjects being selected from the 1100 drawings which Bicknell had 

 made — many, however, being redrawn ; they are accompanied by good 

 descriptions, the provenance of the specimens figured being stated. A 

 second series was projected but not published ; many of his drawings 

 were lent to Mr. H. S. Thompson for his Floioering Plants of the 

 Riviera, but the small scale on which these are reproduced does scant 

 justice to the originals. In 1896 Bicknell published a Flora of 

 Bordighera and San Beino, which contains excellent original notes. 

 In the summer he was accustomed to i-eside in a delightfully situated 

 house in Val Casterino above S. Dalmazzo di Tenda ; here he found 

 an extensive series of prehistoric i-ock drawings, on which he pub- 

 lished a volume. Bicknell threw himself with enthusiasm into every- 

 thing that could advance the social welfare of the Bordighera ; he 

 established a museum which he left to the Commune, with the excep- 

 tion of his general collection of European plants, which goes to the 

 Istituto Botanico di Genova to which during his lifetime he had 

 been a generous contributor. 



H. A. A. Van dee Lek has recently issued an account in Dutch 

 and French of the Verticillose of Cucumber {OnderzeeJcingen over 

 Tracheomycoeen : Be Verticilliose van den Komkommer). It is a 

 disease due to the attack of the soil fungus VerticiUium alho-atrum, 

 known also as a pest of potatoes ; the fungus penetrates the vascular 

 tissue from the root, and only becomes noticeable when it passes to 

 the parenchymatous tissue of the leaf. Van der Lek considers that 

 the cultivation of immune varieties of the host plant is the only 

 method of treatment that promises success. The pani])hlet is well- 

 illustrated. The pamphlet is issued mider the auspices of tlie Land- 

 bouwhoogeschool by H.Vecnman, Wageninen. 



