158 BOTANICAL NEWS. 



Plants ' [TrifuUiim multicaule, Grind elia j^acifica, Oxytheca Red- 

 dinf/iana). 



Hedwhiia. — (Feb.), C. Warnstorf, ' Bryum Kaurinianum, n. sp.' 

 — (March), P. A. Karsten, ^ Hyponectria Queletii, n. sp.' 



Journal of Linnean Society (Botany, vol. xix., nos. 117-119). — 

 J. E. T. Aitchison, ' On the Flora of the Kuram Valley, Afghani- 

 stan ' (map, 30 plates). 



Midland Naturalist. — W. B. Grove, ' On Myxomycetes.' — J. E. 

 Bagnall, 'Flora of Warwickshu-e ' (contd.). 



(Esterr. Bot. Zeitschrift. — A. Hemierl, ' Buhus brachystemon, 

 n. sp.' — F.Hofmann, ' On the Flora of Bosnia ' (contd.) — P. G. 

 Strobl, * Flora of Etna' (contd.) — P. Sintenis, ' On the Flora of 

 Cyj)rus ' (contd.) 



Scottish Xaturalist. — F. B. White, ' Preliminary List of Perth- 

 shu-e Plants ' (contd.) — J.^W, H. Trail, ' The Modes of Dispersion 

 of Seeds of Scottish Plants.' — J. Cameron, ' Gaelic Names of 

 Plants ' (contd.) 



Botanttal Nttos. 



The death of Joseph Decmsne, which took place at Paris on the 

 8th of February, leaves an important gap in the list of French 

 botanists. Born at Brussels on March 18th, 1809, he entered the 

 Jardin des Plantes as a gardener at the age of eighteen, where his 

 capabilities soon manifested themselves, and attracted the notice of 

 Adrien de Jussieu, who showed him much friendship. On the 

 resignation of Mirbel, in 1851, Decaisne succeeded him as Director 

 of the establishment, a post which he filled until his death. He 

 was a voluminous writer : among the more important of his works 

 are the ' Jardin Fruitier ' (1858-1873), the monographs of Asclepia- 

 dac€6B (1844) and Plantayinece (1852) in the * Prodromus,' and 

 numerous papers in the ' Annales des Sciences Naturelles.' In con- 

 junction with Naudin he produced the comprehensive * Manuel de 

 I'Amateur des Jardins ' (1862-66), upon which Mr. Hemsley's 

 * Handbook of Hardy Trees ' is based ; and with Le Maout he 

 brought out the very useful 'Traite Generale de Botanique' (1868), 

 of which also an English edition, translated by Dr. Hooker, has 

 appeared. A portrait of Decaisne, with some details of his work, 

 will be found in the * Gardeners' Chronicle ' for 1871, p. 377. 



Thomas Potts James died at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the 

 22nd of February last. He was a leading bryologist, his first paper 

 on Mosses having been published (in the Proceedings of the Phila- 

 delphia Academy of Natural Sciences) in 1854 ; and was at the 

 time of his death engaged with Lesquereux upon a Manual of 

 North American Mosses, which was nearly concluded. He had a 

 good general knowledge of botany, and in 1869 edited, from Pursh's 

 manuscripts, his Journal of a Botanical Excursion in Pennsylvania 



