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BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, &c. 



At the meeting of the Linnean Society on 3rd April, Mr. C. E. 

 Salmon exhibited a large series of forms of Alchemilla vulgaris 

 Linn., on which he made the following remarks. During a short 

 holiday in Scotland last year, all the known British forms were 

 met with. There are three main sections, Pubescentes, Hirsutce, 

 and SubglabrcB. A. pubescens Buser represents the first section 

 (which also includes A. hirsuticaulis Lindb. and A. plicata Buser); 

 all these are more or less wholly densely sericeous. A. pubescens 

 is not British, but occurred last year in a wild situation in Surrey 

 (see p. 141). In the Hirsute section, we get three out of the four 

 British species. The first, A.pratensis Schmidt, is widely distri- 

 buted over the British Isles and Ireland ; the glabrous flowers, 

 hairy stem, and glabrous upper leaf -surface help to distinguish it. 

 A. minor Huds. is the next and is our most frequent form ; may 

 be known by its hairy pedicels and flowers. The third, A. minor 

 subsp. filicaidis Lindb., is extremely local in Britain, only occur- 

 ring in a few stations in Scotland, but widely distributed in 

 Norway, Sweden, Faroes, &c. It is less hairy in all its parts 

 than A. minor; the pedicels and top of stem are glabrous. The 

 remaining British species, A. alpestris Schmidt, belongs to the 

 section Subglabrce and is much more glabrous than any of the 

 others in stem, leaves, &c. Its distribution in Britain is more 

 northern than that of A. pratensis or A. minor, but an isolated 

 colony exists in Sussex. A. acutidens Lindb. was reported from 

 Ben Lawers in Aug. 1911, on the occasion of the Phyto-Geogra- 

 phical Excursion : Dr. Lindberg has now named the original 

 plants of the 1911 gathering as autumnal states of A. alpestris 

 (see p. 141). The other non-British species are — under section 

 Hirstitce — A. pastoralis Buser, leaves pilose above, pedicels gla- 

 brous ; A. micans Buser, with the veins on the under leaf- surface 

 shining; A. subcrenata Buser, leaves much less hairy above and 

 teeth broad and obtuse ; and A. acutangi da Buser, with long, more 

 or less acute, leaf-lobes. Under Subglabrce, comes A. obtusa Buser, 

 which is close to acutidens but has broader leaf-lobes and teeth, 

 and sepals and episepals broader and shorter; and A. glomeridans 

 Buser, with flowers in somewhat close heads. From the careful 

 maps prepared by Dr. Lindberg, showing the distribution of these 

 various forms, it will be seen that Great Britain may yet claim 

 some of them as true natives. 



Messrs. Dent have added to their shilling "Temple Primer" 

 series a very excellent little volume on Plant Geography from the 

 pen of Mr. G. S. Boulger. Into small compass the author has 

 compressed a vast amount of information, which he divides into 

 four "books," the first dealing with the evolution of the plant- 

 world, the second with the factors of distribution, the third with 

 floristic regions, the fourth with botanical ecology or to geo- 

 graphy. An excellent bibliography shows that Mr. Boulger 

 is fully acquainted with the literature of his subject, to which he 



