64 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 



giimsulanum, it makes such good progress that it reaches Plagio- 

 thecinm nitidulnm. Tlie most valuable achievement in the present 

 part is the completion of the index of the species of Hi/puum which 

 have always been difficult to trace owing to the vast number of 

 names in use, and the perplexing and ever-changing systems in 

 which they have been classified. It is to be hoped that we have 

 now a trustworthy clue to the synonymy and literature of tha 

 genus. — A. G. 



Owing to an accident, as we learn from Prof. Britton, we have 

 only just received our exchange copy of the Bulletins of the Torrey 

 Club from May last, the absence of which has prevented their 

 inclusion in our list of "Articles in Journals." We mention this 

 because our erroneous but not unnatural conclusion, based upon a 

 similar failure of exchange, that Erythea had ceased to appear, has 

 occasioned some comment, not of the most courteous kind, in our 

 transatlantic contemporaries. Dr. Britton says [Taney Bulletin, 

 1896, p. 283) that our statement was "about as accurate as [ourj 

 recently printed tabulation of the dates of the publication of the 

 Bulletin during 1895" — thereby implying that both statements 

 were equally inaccurate. 



There can be no doubt as to which Bulletin he intends, for 

 Dr. Britton prints the word in small capitals ; and he may perhaps 

 be excused for recognizing no other Bulletin than his own. " Such 

 pride," like that of Lieutenant Belaye in the Bab Ballads, "is hardly 

 wrong"; yet if the accomplished editor had not been in such a 

 hurry to criticize, or had taken the trouble to read the article which 

 he censures, he would have seen that the "tabulation" refers, not 

 to his journal, but to the Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information issued 

 at irregular intervals in connection with Kew Gardens. This 

 tabulation, as we then pointed out, is based on the Stationery 

 Office date printed on each number, and cannot be otherwise than 

 accurate. No doubt Dr. Britton will be as ready to withdraw his 

 misstatement as we were to correct ours regarding Erythea. 



We note that Dr. Britton (Torrey Bulletin, 1896, 215) commends 

 Mr. Druce's * Notes on the Ninth Edition of the London Catalogue ' 

 as "critical and valuable," and quotes "a few sentences in order to 

 show that Mr. Druce is sound on principles of nomenclature." We 

 do not observe that Dr. Britton has subsequently modified this 

 opinion ; probably he has not noticed the criticisms of Mr. Arthur 

 Bennett and the Rev. E. S. Marshall (Ami. Scott. Xat. Hist. April, 

 1896, pp. 109-112) or our own examination of Mr. Druce's paper 

 in this Journal (1896, pp. 271-3). Those who have read either of 

 these notices will be able to form their own opinion as to the 

 critical value and soundness of the procedure which is thus stamped 

 with the approval of the great American reformer of nomenclature. 



The Proceedinys of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural 

 History Society for 1896 (3rd series, vol. ii.) contains the completion 

 of the Eev. R. P. Murray's Flora of Somerset. Our readers will be 

 glad to know that the Rev. E. S. Marshall has begun to write 

 out his Flora of Kent for press. 



