288 BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 



Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschnft (June). — F. Pax, ' Neue Pflanzenarfcen 

 ausdenKarpathen.' — A.v.Degeu, 'Ueber einige orientalischePflan- 

 zenarten ' (cent.). — V. Folgiier, ' Zur Systematik uiid Pilanzengeo- 

 graphie der Pomaceen ' (confc.). — V. Schiffner, ' Bryologische Mit- 

 theilungen aus Mitteibolimen.' 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, d-c. 



Mr. Nimmo has begun a reissue in monthly parts of Mr, A. W. 

 Bennett's Flora of the Alps, which we noticed at some length in 

 this Journal for 1896 (pp. 325-7). The extracts froru press opinions 

 which accompany the prospectus do not increase our confidence in 

 the competence of the general reviewer: the Standard, for example, 

 said: — "Mr. Bennett gives an adequate description, and one which 

 is both clear and exact, of all the species of flowering plants common 

 to (aic) Switzerland"; and the Spectator informed its readers that 

 the work "contains classified accounts of all the wild flowers growing 

 in Switzerland." The author himself is much more modest : " every 

 species," he says (Introd. p. vi), "is at least named." 



Mkssrs. George Murray and V. H. Blackman have sailed for 

 the West Indies in order to work at the plant plankton of the 

 Atlantic, especially the forms found remote from coastal waters, 

 such as the Coccospheres and Rhabdospheres. Their method of 

 capture is by pumping sea-water through very fine silk bags, thus 

 attaining practically the same result as by tow-net, and without 

 stopping the ship. Though this method has been very successful 

 in the hands of Dr. John Murray and Mr. George Murray, and 

 Coccospheres and Rhabdospheres have already been obtained by it 

 in the hands of Capt. Miluer (see Nature, April 1st, 1897), this is 

 the first organized plankton expedition travelling by mail steamer 

 and relying entirely on tow-netting the water pumped on board. 

 The result can hardly fail to be instructive. 



One of our correspondents has not unreasonably taken exception 

 to the advertisement of the "Floral Gems of Ballyvaughan " which 

 has appeared on the cover of our last two numbers, on the ground 

 that it may possibly lead to the extirpation of rare plants. The 

 advertisement appeared without our knowledge, and perhaps should 

 not have been inserted; but we do not think it will lead to mischief, 

 as many of the plants mentioned are neither rare nor attractive. 

 Mr. O'Kelly, the advertiser, issues catalogues which are in them- 

 selves curiosities; they include "700 distinct varieties of Scolo- 

 pendrium vuh/are,'' 500 of which Mr. O'Kelly has himself collected 

 "on the Barren Mountains about Ballyvaughan, which is really the 

 home of the Hart's Tongue Fern." In his catalogue of ferns, a large 

 number of names (some of them very odd ones) are followed by 

 " 0," which signifies O'Kelly ; "all these O'Kelly's are my own new 

 finds in the County of Clare." 



In our last paragraph (p. 25G) the name of Dr. D. H. Scott was 

 accidentally substituted for that of Dr. G. B, Howes, 



