142 



BOOK.NOTES, NEWS, dc. 



Mr. C. F. Millspaugh, of the Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, 



sends us his interesting Contiihntion to the Flcnt of Yucatan. He 

 enumerates as the only known collectors in that region J. J. Linden 

 in 1825, E. P. Johnson in 1848, Dr. G. F. Gaumier in 1885-6, and 

 by himself in January, 1895. Dr. Gaumier collected 224 species, 

 and we learn from Mr. Millspaugh that since the publication of his 

 Contrihutioii , he has sent in another collection of about 600 species. 

 Mr. Hemsley is quoted as saying that " little is known of the details 

 of the botany of Yucatan," and this is still the case; but it is un- 

 fortunate that that writer, in the Botany of the Biolofiia Centrali- 

 Americana, should have ignored the plants (some 600 species) 

 collected by Dr. A. Schott in Yucatan in 1865, and acquired for the 

 British Museum in 1876. We called attention to these specimens 

 in our notice of the first part of Mr. Hemsley's book (Joiini. Bot. 

 1880, 90), and it is matter for regret that this and other collections 

 then mentioned, equally easy of access, should have been ignored 

 in the Biologia. Dr. Schott's plants are scattered through the 

 Herbarium, and it would not be easy to give a complete list of 

 them ; they include several novelties, some of which have been 

 described, and there is a MS. containing valuable notes on the 

 names and folklore of the species. Mr. Millspaugh describes and 

 figures one new species, Kuphorbia Armouni, appropriately named 

 in compliment to Mr. Allison V. Armour, of Chicago, at whose 

 expense the 1891 expedition was undertaken. 



The Director of Kew Gardens has added to his responsibilities 

 the editing of the Icones Plantarnm , for which Prof. Daniel Oliver 

 has been responsible since 1891. Prof. Oliver's vast knowledge of 

 systematic botany rendered him peculiarly suitable for a post of this 

 kind ; and botanists will regret that the Icones is no longer to have 

 the great benefit of his supervision, more especially as this has been 

 for some time past the only medium through which his work has 

 been presented to the botanical world. Nineteen out of the twenty- 

 five species figured in this part are, however, described by him, so 

 it may be hoped that his co-operation has been secured ; the other 

 descriptions are by Dr. Stapf and Mr. Rolfe, the editor being so far 

 unrepresented. Dr. Stapf describes two new genera of Grasses — 

 Woodrowia (Agrostideae) and Halupyrnm (Festuceae) : the former is 

 a new plant from Poona ; the latter is based on Hniola mucionata 

 L., the systematic position of which has always been doubtful. 



The Quarteiii/ Review for March has a curious article entitled 

 " Plant Names," under which heading are lumped together various 

 works ranging in date from 1870 to 1895, including Dr. Prior's 

 Popular Xaoies of British Plants, Messrs. Britten & Holland's 

 Dictionary of English Plant Names, and — the Index Kewensis ! With 

 regard to the last, the misleading announcements put forward both 

 inside and outside the book, on which we have commented more 

 than once, have been so entirely successful, that while we are told 

 that "we have largely to thank the Kew staff" for the work — 



