BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 151 



Mr. C. T. White, Government Botanist of Queensland, sends us 

 reprints which show much activity in the investigation of the flora of 

 the colony. A revision of Queensland LecytUdacece (Proc. Linn. Soc. 

 N.S.W. xliv. 1919— issued March 15, 1920) includes a new Barring- 

 tonia (B. longeracemosa) ; " Contributions to the Queensland 

 Flora " {Botany Bulletin, xxii. ; 5 Aug. 1920), in which Mr. W. L>. 

 Francis cooperates, contains descriptions and figures (from photo- 

 graphs of specimens) of numerous species of Sapindaceee, Myrtaceoe, 

 Meliacecs, etc. ; the first number of •' Contributions to the Orchi- 

 daceous Flora of Queensland" (Proc. 11. Soc. Queensland, xxxii : 

 Sept. 14, 1920) includes two new Zeuxines (Z. oblong a and Z. attenu- 

 ate/,), jointly described by Mr. White and Dr. P. S. Pogers. 



We take the following from the Manchester City News of 

 Feb. 5 : " The Middleton Botanical Society, which has been in 

 existence for considerably more than a hundred years, held its annual 

 dinner on Saturday last at the Ping o' Bells, the guests of the 

 evening being Mr. J. W. Whitworth and Mr. William Henry 

 Pearson. Until the war the society had the curious custom of re- 

 galing itself at its annual dinner 'with hot ale and gin— a custom 

 which, however, no longer prevails. After dinner the chair was 

 taken by Mr. Thomas Entwisle, the president, a gardener under the 

 Corporation, at Queen's Park, whose knowledge of British and exotic 

 plants is perhaps unrivalled in the kingdom. " In his address he gave 

 some very interesting particulars as to George Caley, an early member 

 of the society, who went out to Australia with Sir Joseph Banks and 

 who, after being there about ten years, was recalled to England to 

 give evidence in relation to the Mutiny of the Bounty. He after- 

 wards was appointed superintendent of the Botanical Gardens at 



St. Vincent in the West Indies Mr. Pearson expressed the proud 



pleasure he had in meeting the members of a society which could 

 claim to have had such distinguished Lancashire botanists as Georo- e 

 Caley, Edward Hobson, Eichard Buxton, and others, and who^e 

 reputation is being well upheld by such of its present members as 

 Mr. Searle, Mr. Pouse, and Mr. Entwistle. Mr. Pearson mentioned 

 that he had lately met with a copy of Priscilla Wakefield's ' Letters, 

 on Botany,' which, according to the autobiographic sketch of the 

 author, was one of the few books which Pichard Buxton had to help 

 him in his studies. This Mr. Pearson had the pleasure of addino- to 

 the considerable library possessed by the society." 



Further parts of the Synopsis der Mitteleuropdischen Flora 

 (continued after Ascherson's death by Graebner) forming the be- 

 ginning of vol. v. 2, will be useful to students of British plants In 

 Part 100 (30 July, 1920) we find Agrostemma Githaqo ■ Goronaria 

 Jflos-Gucult (the genus Lychnis as emended includes no British 

 species); Melandryum album and rubrum ( = dioicum L emend 

 Miller, as Lychnis) and their hybrids; M. noctiflorum ■ Viscaria 

 mscaria ( = V. viscosa) and alpina— all except the last with numerous 

 subdivisions and names : Silene venosa (Gilibert as Gucubalus 

 nomen abortivum, = S. angustifolius Mill, emend. Rendle and 



