CONIFERS AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS 29 



" As far as the names go the vernacular aliases {?■(]■, Morinda) of 

 this tree have — with all apologies to Sir E. Smith, Hrst President 

 of the Linnean Society, and after whom it was named — a far more 

 pleasing ring than the name finally hestowed on it by priority of 

 publication, but not given, we mark, by priority of name as bestowed 

 upon it by the natives and European dwellers before the date 1S12, 

 when it was described and figured by Dr. Wallich." 



The use of initial capitals to all specific names adds to the 

 amateurish appearance of the book, as also do such abbreviations 

 as " Ps. Ts. Doug. var. Colorado " in the alphabetical list of names 

 which does duty as an Index. 



A really useful handy guide to hardy conifers has yet to be 

 written. 



Gr. S. BoULGER. 



BOOK -NOTES, NEWS, etc. 



The journej's by which Reginald Farrer enriched our gardens 

 and greatly extended our knowledge of the flora of Tibet and China 

 have been brought to a close by his death, which occurred during the 

 last of them, on the frontier range between Burma and China, at 

 the early age of 40. An article (accompanied by a portrait) in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle for Nov. 20, summarises his travels, which 

 have been recorded at length by himself in the Journal of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society, vol. xlii., and in the Chronicle for 1919-20. 

 Farrer, though not strictly speaking a botanist, was in the first rank 

 of collectors : he " sent home the best seed and obtained the best 

 germinations " ; he never " succumbed to the fatal temptation to 

 collect a plant simply because it was new : it was enough for him that 

 it was beautiful and not yet in cultivation." Several hundreds of his 

 plants have proved to be new, and many bear his name, though, so 

 far as we are aware, it has not been bestowed upon a genus. On 

 rock-plants and gardens, Farrer was a recognised authority — his book 

 on The English Rock- Garden, noticed at length in this Journal for 

 1919 (pp. 354-357), is a good example of his discursive style, which 

 may perhaps be accounted for by the fact that he was also a novelist 

 of some distinction. 



Sir David Ernest Hutchins, whose death was reported from 

 New Zealand at the beginning of December, was one of the ablest 

 and most experienced forest oflicers in the Empire. Born in 1S50, he 

 was educated at Blundell's School, Tiverton, and entered the Indian 

 Forest Service from the Nancy Forest School. After ten years' 

 Indian service, he entered that of South Africa and devoted himself 

 mainly for the next twenty-three years of his life to the study of 

 extra-tropical forestry, reporting on the Transvaal in 1903, Rhodesia 

 in 1901, the slopes of Kenia in 1907 and 1908, British East Africa 

 generally and Cyprus in 1909, West Australia in 1914-15, and New 

 Zealand in 1916, and visiting Mexico to examine the pines suitable 

 for introduction into Rhodesia. Hutchins's reports are ahvaj's marked 

 by a careful discrimination of species with special reference to their 

 ecology. Brachylcena ITutchinsii Hutchinson, a Composite which 



