256 



BOTANICAL NEWS. 



detected iu the adjacent Watford district of Herts ; a large proportion 

 of these are the heath plants of Stan more, Harrow Weald, and 

 Harefield, for which since the enclosure of Bushey Heath there are no 

 suitable localities in the district. 



Mr. C. B. Clarke's " Commelynace83 et Cyrtandraceae Bengal- 

 enses" consists of a series of folio plates, ninety-three in number, re- 

 presenting every Bengal species of these two small Orders ; several of 

 them have been previously published and are here reproduced. They 

 have been made by native artists under the superintendence of Mr. 

 H. H. Locke. The descriptions of the Commelijnacece are a corrected 

 and extended edition of the author's paper in the ''Journal of the 

 Linnean Society," some new species being added. Forty species are 

 described. The Cyrtandracece include fifty -three species ; Christisonia 

 is not included in' the Order. The book is printed at the Calcutta TJni- 

 versity press, and the price is 10 rupees (£1). 



A new series of *' The Naturalist," the Journal of the "West 

 Riding Consolidated l^aturaJists' Society, and General Field Club 

 Record, has been started (August lst\ under the editorship of Mr. C. 

 P. Hobkirk and G. T. Porritt. The secretaries of Field Clubs through- 

 out the kingdom should combine to support this little periodical by 

 sending notes of their proceedings and excursions to the Editors, care 

 of Mr. B. Brown, publisher, Huddersfield. 



The Report of the Botanical Exchange Club for the years 1872, 

 73, 74, is in the hands of the printer and will be distributed to the 

 members in a few days. The List of Desiderata for 1875 is already 

 sent out. 



The vegetable remains in the Yorkshire Oolites, which are of the 

 same age as those in Scania, have also been revised in the third edition 

 of the '' Geology of Yorkshire," by the late Prof. Phillips, which has 

 just been issued. Considerable ambiguity surrounds the nomenclature 

 of these fossils, as the first edition of Prof. Phillips's work, containing 

 rude engravings of the plant and a mere list of names, was published 

 in 1829, while Brongniart's ''Prodrome," which appeared in 1828, 

 already contained a list of the same fossils, but without any means 

 whatever for their identification. Prof. Phillips in preparing this 

 new edition scarcely ventured to deal with the Synonymy thus created. 

 He has added many new species, often, we fear, on very imperfect data, 

 and has secured altogether an extensive flora for the secondary rocks 

 of Yorkshire. 



A. G. IS^athorst has recently published in the " Forhandlingar " of 

 the Geological Society of Stockholm an account of the plant fossils 

 found in the Oolite rocks at Palojii, in Scania. Sixteen species had 

 been described by Nilson and others ; he adds twenty-six to them, of 

 which twelve are new to science. Among them is a fungus parasitic 

 on a Cycadian leaf, several ferns, cycads, and conifers. One of the 

 coniferous fossils is distinguished as type of a new genus, near to the 

 Voltzia of the Trias. To it the Mr. Nathorst gives the name of 

 Swedenlorgia, after Emanuel Swedenborg, who was the first to notice 

 these plants, in his " Miscellanea Observata circa lies Naturalis," 

 1722. 



