820 BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 



470 square miles, over which area the oxlip flourishes in immense 

 abundance in all old woods and some meadows ; while the primrose 

 (which grows all around) is entirely absent. Along the dividing 

 line between the two, which is very sharply defined, hybrids are 

 produced in great abundance. On the other hand, the cowslip 

 (which grows both around and throughout the oxlip-area) very 

 rarely hybridizes with it. Mr. Christy believed that the primrose 

 was, in this country, gradually hybridizing the oxlip out of existence. 

 He then noticed a rare single-flowered variety of P. elatior, which 

 he proposed to call var. acaulis, and several aberrations, showing 

 upon the screen photographic views of these and of the hybrids, as 

 well as a map of the distribution of the oxlip in Britain. 



Sir H. H. Johnston's attractive volume on British Central Africa 

 contains a carefully drawn-up list of the plants known to occur in 

 the region (including Cryptogams), compiled by Mr. I. H. Burkill. 

 No new species are described, and there is no bibliography — a 

 somewhat regrettable omission, easily explicable, however, from 

 the necessity of limiting the space taken up by the list, which 

 already occupies over fifty pages. The region has been divided into 

 four sections — 1. Shire Highlands ; 2. Nyasa-Tanganyika plateau; 

 3. Extreme west ; 4. Upper Zambezi ; and the distribution of each 

 species is indicated. Occasional slips are inevitable in lists of this 

 kind; one such may be suspected in Luffa afiyptiaca, which is 

 included only on faith of a plant collected by Buchanan, a specimen 

 so named in the Kew list of his collection being Momordica foetida. 

 But the work is carefully and, so far as we have been able to test it, 

 very completely done. 



We have received a batch of accessories compiled by Mr. H. N. 

 Dixon upon the basis of his Handbook of British Mosses. These are, 

 a ^^ Handbook'" Catalogue, Si^^ Handbook'" Label- List of British Mosses, 

 and an Alphabetical Index to Genera (Eastbourne : V. T. Sumfield. 

 London : John Wheldon & Co.). They cost but a few pence each, 

 and afford a readily consulted and almost complete list of our 

 mosses, with the species numbered consecutively throughout : and 

 the student, whether he uses Mr. Dixon's Handbook or not, will 

 find these lists of great assistance to him in his work, be it in the 

 arrangement of his herbarium or the negociation of exchange. 



The second number of Notes from the Botanical School of 

 Trinity College, Dublin, contains three papers by Mr. H. H. Dixon 

 — "On the role of osmosis in transpiration," "On the osmotic 

 pressure in the cells of leaves," and " On the physics of the trans- 

 piration current." Prof. Perceval Wright contributes various notes 

 on the College Herbarium. 



We are glad to note that botany received due recognition in the 

 distribution of the Jubilee honours, in the promotion of Sir J. D. 

 Hooker to the Grand Cross of the Star of India. 



Dr. Dyer contributes a page about Kew Gardens to the Pall 

 Mall Magazine for August. 



