42 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



the gallery find collection of pictures presented by Miss North 

 will be open to the public early in June. It contains 615 oil- 

 pictures, painted in every case by Miss North herself in the actual 

 places represented — Singapore, Borneo, Japan, Java, New Zea- 

 land, Brazil, Jamaica, N. America, Cejdou, and India. The 

 pictures are transcripts of extraordinary fidelity of all that is 

 remarkable in the physiognomy of the places visited ; and the 

 ensemble supplies one of the most complete series of illustra- 

 tions of the possibilities of plant-form which has ever been 

 brought together. 



The late Grcorge Curling Joad, a Pellow of the Society, who 

 died last year somewhat unexpectedly, left directions that his 

 extensive herbarium of European plants and his large collections 

 of living herbaceous plants should be offered to Kevv. The latter 

 will entirely fill the large rock-garden which is now in process of 

 being laid out. 



The Rev. "W. Allport Leightou, a Fellow of the Society and 

 the well-known authority on British Lichenology, has presented 

 the whole of his extensive herbarium of British Lichens to the 

 National Herbarium at Kew. 



Kew has also been enriched by the interesting herbarium of 

 Hewett Cottrell Watson, the author of so many well-known works 

 on British botany. 



The exhibited collection of Cryptogamic Plants at Kew, which 

 was formerly much scattered, has been brought together into 

 one convenient room, and the arrangement much improved. 



It is much to be hoped that a pathological collection illustrating 

 the diseases of plants and trees (a subject to which, apart from 

 its practical importance, much interest has been given by a recent 

 remarkable address of Sir James Paget's) may be gradually de- 

 veloped. 



Numerous collections have been received at Kew from Dr. Gr. 

 AV. Parker and others from Madagascar ; and their examination 

 by Mr. J. G. Baker has largely increased our knowledge of the 

 vegetation of an area of singular interest from the point of view 

 of geographical distribution, and which is rich also in peculiar 

 endemic forms. 



Mr. Dyer, to whom I am indebted for the preceding facts, 

 considers that the great desideratum at present is a more detailed 

 examination of the floras of the upper levels of Central Tropical 

 Africa. The collections made by Mr. Thomson of Keith John- 

 ston's Expedition, and by the late Mr. New on Kilima-njaro, 

 show that there is reason to expect that fresh explorations of the 

 mountain-floras would throw much light on the origin and former 

 geographical relations of the peculiar flora of S. Africa, which 

 seems to extend northwards at the higher levels. It is much to 

 be regretted, in the interests of geographical botany, that the 

 proposed expedition to Kilima-njaro has, for the present, faUen 

 througli. 



