64 BOTANICAL NEWS. 



In 1842 lie succeeded David Don as librarian to the Society, 

 of which he was shortly afterwards elected an Associate. Mr. 

 Kippist contributed various botanical papers to the Linnean 

 Society, which were published in their ' Proceedings ' and ' Trans- 

 actions.' He was an original member of the Royal Microscopical 

 Society, and an Associate of the Royal Botanical Society, Regent's 

 Park, and at the latter he served for many years as judge at the 

 flower shows. Spare in habit and of medium stature, in his 

 younger years he was very active, but latterly Mr. Kippist suffered 

 from asthma and chronic bronchitis, which materially deprived 

 him of his earlier active habits. He retired from office in 1880, 

 after fifty years of service, his full pension having been awarded to 

 him by the Council of the Society. A Composite iDlant was defined 

 by Baron F. von Mueller under the name Kippistia, in his honour; 

 but this has since been more generally considered as a species of 

 Minuria. Baron von Mueller had provided for this contingency by 

 also naming the plant Minuria Kippistiana (PI. Vict. t. 35) ; and it 

 it is to be regretted that this name is ignored in the ' Flora 

 Australiensis ' (iii. 499), where the plant is called 'J/. sucBdifolia, 

 F. Muell., under Kippistia.' 



The last work of the late Mr. H. C. "Watson on the distribution 

 of British plants was his ' Topographical Botany,' issued in 1873-4^ 

 in which he traced the dispersion of each species through the 112 

 " vice-counties " wdiich he adopted. Of this book only one hundi^ed 

 copies were ^n-inted for private circulation, and these were all given 

 away by the author immediately to his friends and correspondents. 

 Since its issue a large amount of new material has been accumu- 

 lated, and at the time of his death, last autumn, Mr. Watson was 

 engaged in the preparation of a new edition. This he did not live 

 to complete, as regards its prefatory and explanatory portions ; but 

 he had kept an interleaved copy, in w^hich he regularly entered up 

 every record of the occurrence of any plant in a new district that 

 was brought to his notice. At his own special request, this was 

 deposited with his herbarium at Kew, and from this Mr. J. G. Baker 

 and the Rev. W. W. Newbould are now preparing a second edition 

 of the book, which Mr. Quaritch has undertaken to publish. 



We have received a circular statmg that the Botany of North 

 Devon is about to be systematically investigated by a committee 

 appointed by the BarnstaxDle Literary and Scientific Institution, 

 upon which we are glad to see the name of Mr. AY. P. Hiern, of 

 Castle House, Barnstaple. The district includes " that part of the 

 . country which is drained by rivers and streams that ultimately 

 empty their waters into the sea on the north coast," thus 

 corresponding with Mr. Watson's North Devon subdivision. 

 Communications may be addressed to Mr. Thomas Wainwright, 

 Hon. Sec. of the Barnstaple Institution, or to Mr. Hiern. 



The Rev. T. A. Preston, of the Green, Marlborough, has in pre- 

 paration a new (3rd) edition of the * Flora of Marlborough,' with 

 such additions as may render it, as far as possible, a Flora of 

 Wiltshire ; he will be glad to receive any help. 



