82 BOTANICAL NEWS. 



' Flora Capensis,' of which the first volume appeared in 1860. 

 The third volume, bearing the date 1864-1865, brought the work 

 down to the end of Cavipanulacem: and is, as all botanists know and 

 regret, the last which has been issued, the death of Dr. Harvey in 

 1866 having apparently caused the cessation of the work. Eumours 

 of its continuation have from time to time been circulated, and it was 

 understood that Mr. Dyer had undertaken the editorship ; but nothing 

 further has been published, although we beheve the South African 

 Government has more than once expressed a strong wish that the 

 work should be proceeded with. Dr. Bonder had an extensive 

 knowledge of Algse, upon which he published several memoirs. 



The extensive British Herbarium of the Natural History 

 Museum has lately been completely rearranged. It is desired to 

 exhibit the distribution of each species in the districts laid down in 

 ' Topographical Botany,' and for this purpose we would invite the 

 co-operation of the readers of this Journal, to many of whom, 

 indeed, the Herbarium is already largely indebted. Good specimens 

 of common plants will usually be welcome, the tendency being too 

 often to collect rarities to the exclusion of common species. 



Steudel's ' Nomenclator Botanicus ' is a work of considerable 

 utility, even at the present day ; but the lapse of forty years since 

 the publication of the second edition has to some extent marred its 

 usefulness. We are therefore glad to learn that a new edition is in 

 contemplation ; the cost of its preparation Avill be defrayed by Mr. 

 Charles Darwin, and the superintendence of its execution has been 

 entrusted to Mr. B. Day don Jackson, Secretary of the Linnean 

 Society. We have before now adverted to that gentleman's 

 assiduity in similar work, and are sure that he will do his 

 utmost to ensure the greatest possible completeness in his present 

 gigantic undertaking. Its magnitude may be estimated by reflecting 

 that, when Steudel brought out his second volume in 1841, the elder 

 DeCandolle was still living, having then published the seventh volume 

 of the 'Prodromus'; and Endlicher's ' Genera plantarum ' was a 

 new book a few months old, the ' Man tissue' and ' Supplementa' not 

 then being existent. The issue of an alphabetical arrangement of 

 the mass of names now current, with their synonyms, will be an 

 important event in botanical literature, and supply an every-day 

 want, which in common with all botanists we have experienced. 



A CIRCULAR issued with the December number of this Journal 

 drew attention to a proposed General Index, to include all the 

 volumes up to the end of the present year. Of the utility of an 

 Index of this kind there can, we presume, be little doubt ; the 

 absence of such a means of reference to the various Journals pub- 

 lished by the late Sir W. J. Hooker materially detracts from their 

 value, and although we have taken pains to make each year's 

 Index to the ' Journal of Botany ' as complete as possible, the loss 

 of much time and labour is involved by the necessity of consulting 

 so many separate lists. The number of those who have subscribed to 

 the projected General Index is, however, as yet very small, and unless 

 it is greatly increased the idea of its issue must be abandoned. 



