256 BOTANICAL NEWS. 



" symmetrical" sj^stem, and a classification of the European Junyer- 

 mannicB. It is but quite recently that, after an interval of over 

 fifty years, M. Du Mortier has returned to this group and given 

 us his valuable ' Hepaticae Europse.' In 1827 he visited England 

 to consult the Linnean herbarium, and on his return to Belgium 

 he published his ' Florula Belgica.' After the year 1837 politics 

 absorbed nearly all his time till 1862, when on the foundation of 

 the Belgian Botanical Society he became the first President, and 

 recommenced to publish on Botany. The ' Bulletin ' of the 

 Society contains numerous papers on the more critical genera and 

 species of the Belgian flora, of which the most important are the 

 ' Etude Agrostographique ' and the 'Bouquet du litoral Beige,' both 

 pubhshed in 1868. The now flourishing Jardin Botanique de 

 I'Etat at Brussels owes its establishment on a satisfactory scientific 

 basis mainly to the efforts of M. du Mortier. His name is appro- 

 priately commemorated in the genus of Hepaticce, Dumortiera, as 

 well as by several species dedicated to him. 



The death of Giovanni Zanardini occurred at Venice, where he 

 was Professor of Botany, on April 24th, at the age of seventy-four. 

 He was a distinguished algologist, and studied for many years the 

 species of the Adriatic, upon which he has published several 

 valuable memoh's. Zanardini w^as also the author of a Catalogue 

 of Phanerogamous plants of Venetia, and of other papers. The 

 genus Zanardinia is now referred to Paclina. 



We have also to record the death of Elias Borszczow, from 

 typhus, on May 12th. He was Professor of Botany and Director 

 of the Garden et Kiew, and as an author is best known for his fine 

 memoir on the Galbanum- and Assafcetida-yielding species of 

 Ferula found in the Aralo-Caspian desert, which he visited in 

 1858. He also pubhshed an account of the Calligonem of the same 

 region. 



Our obituary also contains the name of Phil. Joh. Ferdinand 

 ScHUR, who died in his eightieth year on May 28th. He was a 

 native of Konigsberg (Prussia), but resided for very many years at 

 Hermanstadt in Transyllvania. His numerous papers, from 1850 

 onwards, refer mainly to the botany of that province, and in 1866 

 he published an elaborate 'Enumeratio Plantarum Transsilvaniae,' 

 where he carries out views of the limits of species, so as to 

 make up the large total of 4222 species of Phanerogams and Ferns 

 for the district. A memoir, with portrait, will be iound in the 

 'Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr.' for January, 1876, and an obituary notice 

 in the Hungarian Bot. Journal for last June. 



The first part of Curtis's collection of the plants of the Southern 

 United States (250 species) is now issued. The Curator of Har- 

 vard University Herbarium will receive applications for them at 

 twenty dollars the set, and states that the specimens are well 

 chosen, copious and perfect, all named, and with neat printed 

 tickets. 



