BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 827 



coloured; " it is charitable to suppose that the reviewer is afdicted 

 with Daltonism. 



Tlie introduction of all the lowland plants of Switzerland into 

 a book called " The Flora of the Alps," seems to us a mistake : no 

 one wants them, and they add to the bulk of the work. But they 

 afford an opportunity for the introduction of a few more of the 

 wretched figures from Mr. Wooster's book — e. ;/. the hideous mon- 

 strosity of Fritillaria Meh'afjris already referred to. By the way, 

 what does Mr. Bennett mean by describing the flowers of this as 

 " yellow or variegated with purple " ? He must have forgotten his 

 Matthew Arnold — 



" I know what white, what purple fritillaries 

 The grassy harvest of the river fields 

 Above by Eynsham, clown by Sandford, yields." 



The best part of the book, next to its get-up, is the brief but 

 interesting introduction. There is a short glossary, an index 

 of genera, and one of English names, among which we are 

 surprised to find " Moon -flower " assigned to Lunaria reiUciva. 

 But it is impossible to recommend those who are planning a 

 holiday in Switzerland to add these volumes to their inipedimenta. 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, dc. 



Me. I. H. BuRKiLL publishes in vol. ix. of the Proceedhujs of the 

 Cambridge Philoso]>hical SocieUj (Feb. 10, 1896) an enumeration of 

 a small collection of plants from New Britain, collected by Baron 

 A. von Hiigel in 1875. One new species, Eranthemum FIneijclii, is 

 described, and a new name, Alpinia oceanica, is proposed for a 

 plant of complicated synonymy. We reproduce on p. 320 Mr. 

 Burkill's note on this species. 



Mr. John C. Willis is leaving England for Peradenya, where 

 he will assist Dr. Trimen, and ultimately succeed him in the direc- 

 tion of the Gardens, from which Dr. Trimen will shortly retire. 



The Messrs. Linton have distributed the first fascicle of their 

 " Set of British Hieracia," which should be very helpful to students 

 of this critical genus. It contains twenty-five " species," fourteen 

 of which, so far as is known, are endemic, " though some of them 

 have affinities with Scandinavian types." The distributors say, in 

 the note which accompanies the specimens: "Objection has been 

 made to the use of the term ' species ' in connection with the 

 members of this genus, and, perhaps, the grouping of allied forms 

 together as subspecies under an aggregate [sp. collectiva), may be 

 the best solution of the difficulty ; following the course in some 

 other groups which has been adopted with H. murormn in the 

 London Catalogue. But it must be borne in mind that experiment 

 abundantly shows that these allied forms usually have their 

 differentia brought out more distinctly in cultivation ; and that in 

 all the numerous cases tried, the forms or species come true from 



