BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 295 



Professor Augustine Hent?y has published in the Proceedings 

 of the Boyal Irish Academy (vol. xxxv. section B, no. 2), a very 

 interesting and exhaustive paper (which is issued separately by 

 Messrs. Hodges & P'iggis, Dublin, price \s.) on "'The History of the 

 London Plane'' {Platanus acerifolia Willd.). The chief point of 

 interest lies in the fact that whereas in the Trees of Great Britain (iii. 

 620 : 1908) the author saw " no grounds for assenting to Schneider's 

 view that this is a possible hybrid between occideutalis and orien- 

 talis^'' and gave what seemed to be good reasons for his conclusions ; 

 his further investigations, however, which are the subject of the 

 present paper, led to a reconsideration of the point, and Prof. Henry 

 now considers that " the evidence establishes bej^ond doubt that the 

 London Plane is of hybrid origin," the parents being the species 

 already named. The evidence is duly set forth, " the best proof of 

 the hybrid nature of P. acerifolia being that it does not come true 

 from seed." Six other hybrid forms are enumerated and fully 

 described, two of them being new, and a synopsis of the six species 

 recognised is given. The paper is illustrated by six plates by Miss 

 Margaret G. Flood, five of them figuring the trees described and one 

 showing the achenes. 



The Annals of Botany for July contains papers on "The Floras 

 of the Outlying Islands of New Zealand and their Distribution," by 

 J. C. Willis ; " Studies on the Chloroplasts of Desmids," by N. Carter 

 (2 plates); "Infection by Colletotrichvm Lindemuthianiim,'" by 

 P. K. Dey (1 plate); "Variation in Hevea hrasiliensis,''^ by S. 

 Whitby ; " The Cytology and Life-history of Nemalion midtifidum,^'' 

 by K. E. Cleland (3 plates) ; " The Compound Interest Law and 

 Plant G-rowth," by V. H. Blackman ; " The ' Brown Rot ' Diseases of 

 Fruit Trees, with special reference to the biologic forms of Monilia 

 cinerea,''"' by H. Wormald (2 plates). 



Notes from the Botanical School of Trinity College, Dublin 

 (vol. iii. no. 1; June), contains two papers, both "reprinted by 

 permission from the Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society " : 

 there is doubtless some good reason for this, but the reprinting (in 

 the same city) suggests that Dublin is more fortunate than London 

 in its paper supph\ Dr. H. H. Dixon writes on the recognition by 

 their microscopic characters of the various woods which are known in 

 commerce as Mahogany, and Margaret Gr. Flood on the exudation of 

 water b}"- Colocasia antiq^iiorum ; both papers are accompanied by 

 jjlates. 



Nos. 52-53 of Notes from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Edin- 

 burgh, are entirely occupied by descriptions, by Prof. Balfour, of new 

 species of Rhododendron, of which all but five were discovered by 

 Mr. George Forrest during his botanical exj^loration of Yunnan and 

 the bordering area of S.E. Tibet in 1917-18. "They are only 

 a portion of the novelties in Forrest's collection ; a description of 

 others will fill many subsequent pages of these Notes." 



The Jul}^ issue of Mycologia (vol. xi. no. 4) contains an interest- 

 ing account of " the Mvcological Work of Moses Ashlev Curtis " 

 (1808-1872) by C. L. Shear and Neil E. Stevens, in the\-ourse of 

 which his " joint work with Berkeley " is summarised. 



