BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 407 



Oenterr. Bot. Zcitschrift (Aug.). — G. Wagner, ' Zum Generations- 

 wecbsel von Melawpsura tremul(B.' — V. Scliiffner, ' Ueber die von 

 Sintenis in Tilrkisch-Armenien gesammelten Kryptogamen.' — F. 

 Matouscliek, ' Ueber zwei neue Fettisites-Bsista,vde aus Bohmen ' 

 (1 pL). — F. Arnold, ' Lichenologiscbe Fragmente.' — 0. von Seamen, 

 ' Ueber die Diacruose filr Sdlix triandra.' 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, dc. 



The Flora of Tropical Africa bas received tbe attention of the 

 House of Commons. On Aug. 7tb the First Commissioner of 

 Works was asked, "if the duty of preparing works on the African 

 flora was entrusted to Mr. Dyer, of Kew Gardens, nearly twenty 

 years ago ; whether he is aware that this gentleman has published 

 practically nothing on the subject; and whether he will urge Mr. 

 Dyer either to complete tbe work or to abandon it, so as no longer 

 to discourage private enterprise in the same field." In reply, Mr. 

 Akers-Douglas said, " The third volume of the Flora, of Tropical 

 Africa was published in 1877. In 1891 the Treasury authorized 

 the completion of the work in four more volumes, under Mr. Dyer, 

 of Kew Gardens, on the understanding that one volume would be 

 published every two years. No further volume has yet been issued, 

 although portions of one are in type. Mr. Dyer has been urged to 

 complete the work as rapidly as possible." 



This is satisfactory as far as it goes, but Lord Salisbury and the 

 numerous other persons who feel the importance of completing this 

 long-neglected work must not depend too much upon the result of 

 a question in the House. At least four times, the delay in publishing 

 the Guide to the Gardens — the most generally useful of all the Kew 

 publications — has been brought forward in the House of Commons : 

 as far back as 1892 the then First Commissioner said it was 

 " almost ready, and they hoped to have it out during the summer " 

 — a statement which was received with laughter and a reminder 

 that " a precisely similar answer " had been given fourteen months 

 before. For six or eight summers at least, the thousands of visitors 

 to Kew Gardens have been unable to obtain any guide to the 

 vegetable wonders they see around them, and this must seriously 

 interefere with the value of the Gardens as an educational insti- 

 tution. 



When the Times (March 22, 1892) told us that "no reasonable 

 man can doubt that the publication of the Bulletin is one of the 

 most useful functions discharged by Kew Gardens," we ventured to 

 deprecate the unfavourable inference which might fairly be drawn 

 as to the slight value of Kew before that erratic little publication 

 entered upon its eccentric career. Now that the Bulletin seems to 

 have been dropped, we think that our warning is amply justified ; 

 for no one will deny that, however unsatisfactory it may have proved 

 as to its publications, Kew has exercised great influence for good 



