520 BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 



a third of the volume with the monograph of Silene on which he 

 has been engaged for many years, describing 390 species. Mr. 

 Ridley takes 200 pages for his enumeration of the Orchiilea and 

 Apostnsiacea of the Malay Peninsula, and has also a paper on 

 Malayan Ciirttindracea. Messrs. Scott Elliot, Stnpf, Eolfe, and 

 Wright contribute papers respectively on Pentas, Sararanfia, 

 Vanilla, and Steimvia : there is a posthumous paper on New 

 Zealand lichens by Dr. J. Mueller (Miill. Arg.), Mr. Seward writes 

 on a new Pinitcs, and Mrs. AVeber van Bosse on Pseudocodium, 

 a new genus of Siphonean Algc^. There are also two papers 

 of special interest to British botanists : one by Mr. G. C. Bruce 

 on Bromus interriiptus, and one by Mr. E. J. Lowe on discoveries 

 resulting from the division of a pvothallus of a variety of Scolupen- 

 drium vulgare. Bibliographers, by the way, must note that the 

 publication of the Bromus dates from this Journal for Dec, 1895 

 (p. 344), where Mr. Druce gives a short diagnosis, not referred to 

 in the paper. With a new number of the Proceedini/s, bringing the 

 record down to the end of last June, and the Library Catalogue 

 noticed on p. 516, it must be admitted that the Linnean Society 

 starts its new session with a remarkable output. We hope, by 

 the way, that the completion of the " Index Florae Sinensis," of 

 which, with the exception of a very slender instalment, nothing 

 has appeared since 1891, is not being lost sight of. 



There is, however, room for improvement in the manner in 

 which the Society's publications are produced. The type and paper 

 are good enough, but economy might well be exercised in many 

 directions as regards the space occupied, which would of course 

 result in a corresponding saving in the money expended. There is 

 nothing like the extravagance which is so conspicuous in the 

 Transactions, but certainly space could be saved in many ways. 

 There can be no reason, for example, for giving a separate line to 

 each of the habitats in Mr. Ridley's long paper, or to the "geo- 

 graphical limits" in Mr. Williams'; in the latter, too, the often 

 copious synonymy might be run into one paragraph, instead of 

 each name having a line to itself. An occasional use of thick 

 black (" clarendon ") type would often make the papers more easy 

 of consultation, although this might be considered a daring inno- 

 vation. Moreover, the proof-reading might be more careful. We 

 are well aware that this remark may be met with a tu quoque ; but 

 " contesti " and " exterioses " (for " contexti " and " exteriores ") 

 in one line (p. 209), followed three lines after by " progatio " for 

 " propagatio," should not be found in the publications of a learned 

 Society ; and numerous others might be cited. One at least of the 

 papers should have been competently edited ; a Society like the 

 Linnean should not issue unpublished names without diagnoses. 

 We note that Dr. Mueller's paper was communicated to the 

 Linnean Society " with the sanction of W. T. Thiselton Dyer, 

 C.M.G., CLE., F.R.S. F.L.S." Technically speaking, no doubt 

 Dr. Dyer's j^ermission would have to be obtained before any work 

 in the Kew Herbarium could be undertaken, but this form of 

 acknowledgment seems somewhat unusual. 



