BOTANICiU:. NEWS. 127 



shrubby habit, absence of tuberous root-stock, and embryo placed 

 in a different position in the albumen. Hypo.vidaceiB has its head- 

 quarters in the Cape Flora, which contains thirty-seven of the 

 know^n sixty-four species. There are fifteen species m Tropical 

 Africa, of which two are the same as occur at the Cape, four 

 in Abyssmia, fom* in the Mascarene Isles, and seven in Angola. 

 Sixty species belong to the Old World ; the remaining few are 

 American. In Em*ope they are absent, as is the case with Poly- 

 nesia, North and Central Asia, and extra-tropical South America. 

 The author then describes the general characters of the group, and 

 proceeds to genera and species after the plan adopted in his pre- 

 vious papers on the Liliacecu, &c. — ' On the Sclucpfiecb and Cervan- 

 tesiea, distinct tribes of the Styracm,' by John Miers, F.R.S. This 

 memoir presents a searching examination of four genera of 

 very doubtful affinity and of uncertain position. They have been 

 considered by many botanists as belonging to the Olacacecc or the 

 Saiitalacea-. But they cannot be referred to the former, because 

 thek seeds are invested by manifest integuments ; and they cannot 

 belong to the latter, because they possess a double calyx, and then- 

 calyx and corolla are not combined into a common perigonium. 

 The genera in question are placed by the author in two distmct 

 tribes of the StyracecB. The Scluppjiea consist of eight species of 

 Schcepjia, all of American origm, and of four species of Schcepjiopsis, 

 all natives of Asia. The Cervantesiea, all from South America, 

 consist of three species of Cervantesia and tw^o of lodinia. These 

 are explained by analytical details, accompanied by drawings from 

 nature. — The folio wmg gentlemen were elected Fellows of the 

 Society : — Dr. H. F. Hance, of Whampoa, Chuia ; Edward Milner, 

 Esq., New Cavendish Street; Dr. George Shearer, of Livei-pool ; 

 and the Piev. Piobert Boog Watson, of Edinburgh. 



ISotantcal Ntijps5* 



AVe regret the loss of Sulpiz Kurz, the Curator of the Calcutta 

 herbarium. His death, at the age of only forty-four, took place at 

 Pulo-Penang, Straits of Malacca, on January 15th, whither he had 

 gone on a botanical expedition. Mr. Kurz was a native of Munich, 

 and a pupil of Von Martins ; but left Europe when a young man, and 

 sx^ent some years in Java, being employed in the botanic garden 

 and herbarium at Buitenzorg. There the late Dr. T. Anderson 

 found him. He came to the herbarium at Calcutta in 1864, and 

 has held the post of Curator with great advantage to Lidian botany. 

 Mr. Kurz was a man of restless energy, and probably fell a victim 

 to his disregard of the precautions necessary to explorations in 

 tropical climates. He possessed a very extensive practical acquamt- 

 ance with the Indian and Malayan floras ; explored as a botanist 

 parts of Burmah and Pegu, and published the results of his inves- 

 tigations in special reports to Government and in the ' Journal of 

 the Asiatic Society of Bengal.' In 1869 he visited the Andaman 



