MONOGBAPH OF BRITISH LICHEXS 23 



and Platysma. In the genus TTsnea, the indispensable nature of the 

 list of synonyms already referred to makes itself evident : both 

 editions begin with Jlorida, but the U.Jlorida, Web. of the present 

 edition, is U. ceratina var. scalrosa Ach. of the first; Z7. hirta 

 Hoffm. becomes V. jlorida var. hirta Ach. and V, harhata Web. 

 replaces U. dasypoga Njd. The genus Lecanora has undergone 

 thorough revision. In the first edition it included 197 species, a 

 number now reduced to 92. The sub-genera Placodium and Rinodina 

 are now included in the Fliysciacece and are raised to generic rank — 

 the former on account of the presence of polarilocular spores and the 

 lichen acid parietin, found mostly in both thallus and apothecium, 

 the latter by reason of the distinctly polarilocular brown sjwres. No 

 fewer than twelve Nylanderian species of Lecanora have been, with 

 evidently good reason, transferred to Flacodium. Each plate represents 

 very clearly the whole plant, natural size if small, or a part of 

 it enlarged, vertical sections of the thallus and apothecium, the ascus 

 with paraphyses, and spores. The magnification of sj^ores and sper- 

 matia ranges from 500 to 1800 diameters. Each plate illustrates a 

 more or less typical species ; all genera are represented. 



It is due to Miss Smith to add, that although this volume appears 

 as the second edition of a work by a former writer, the revision has 

 been so complete that the results of her own research are evident on 

 every page. This must have entailed a vast amount of patient and 

 laborious investigation not only of the herbarium specimens, but also 

 of the extensive literature of the subject. The work does much to 

 raise the standard of British lichenology to a high level, and there is 

 reason to believe that its publication will greatly encourage and assist 

 the reviving interest in the plants with which it deals. 



EoBEET Paulson. 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 



The death of Aifis^E Casimib Pyramus de Candolle, at his 

 home near Greneva on October 3, is for the systematic botanist the 

 breaking of a link with the past. There are a few great classic works 

 •in Systematic Botany, and one of these is the Rrodronms Systematis 

 Naturalis Regni Veyetahilis initiated by Augustin P. de Candolle in 

 1824, and brought to a conclusion by his son Alphonse in 1873. The 

 l^enultimate volume (Part xvi. 1864-69), dealing with the families 

 Piperacese, Juglandeai, and Myricacese, was the work of the grandson, 

 Casimir. Casimir was associated with his father, Alphonse, in the 

 scheme for the continuation of the work of the Prodromus by the 

 issue of a series of monographs under the t\i\e Monographice Rlianero- 

 gamarum, in which the families of the Monocotyledons were to appear 

 and also those families of the Dicotyledons, already elaborated in the 

 Frodromus, which stood in need of revision. The first volume issued 

 in 1878 included the Smilacese (by A. P. de Candolle), the Eestiacese 

 (by Masters), and the Meliaceae (by Casimir de Candolle). The 

 ninth and last volume appeared in 1896 : in all eleven families of 

 Monocotyledons and eight of Dicotyledons were treated. Casimir de 



