415 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, dc. 



The valuable addition to our knowledge of the Moss-flora of the 

 Azores, published by M. J. Cardot in the Fu/hth Annual lieport 

 of the Missouri Botanical Garden (April 14, 1897), nearly doubles 

 the total of species recorded as occurring in those islands. The 

 last previous list was that contributed by Mr. Mitten to Godman's 

 Natural Histortj of the Azores (1870), and was known to only a few 

 bryologists. That list contained forty-four Mosses and three 

 Sphagna. M. Cardot now indicates eighty Mosses and eight 

 Sphagna, and expresses his belief that this total might be doubled 

 easily. He describes eight new species and three new varieties, 

 and adds the name of a new Sphafinum detected by Dr. Warnstorf. 

 Another new species is described in the list of nineteen Mosses from 

 Madeira, which brings the present paper to a close. The collec- 

 tions were made by Mr. Trelease and others. M. Cardot's interesting 

 remarks about the distribution of the species show some curious rela- 

 tionships between the Azores and far distant regions. The novelties 

 are clearly and adequately figured, and cheaply to boot. — A. G. 



The herbarium of the late Mr. Charles Packe, containing about 

 4500 sheets of Pyreuean, Swiss, and other plants, has been pre- 

 sented by his widow to the University of Cambridge. Chakles 

 Packe, who died at Stretton Hall, Leicestershire, in 1896, was the 

 eldest son of Captain Edmund Packe, of the Royal Horse Guards. 

 He was born in 1826, and educated at Eton and Christ Church, 

 Oxford, taking his degree in 1849, and being called to the bar in 

 1852. He never practised seriously. In 1857 The Spirit of Travel, 

 one of his first publications, witnessed to his love of the mountains ; 

 and this love led him from this date onwards to spend long periods 

 in the Pyrenees. The mere gymnastic effort of reaching a difficult 

 summit did not appeal to him ; his aims were wider and deeper, so 

 that his excursions became long scientific explorations — researches 

 into the topography, climate, botany, and geology of vast solitudes. 

 His most important work was done on the Spanish side of the chain, 

 a region where but in part one botanist, Ramond, had preceded 

 him. A man of remarkable constitution and character, he wan- 

 dered, often alone, on dangerous glaciers, roped between two powerful 

 Pyrenean wolf-dogs, sleeping in a bag of sheepskins ; and thus, 

 independent of the world far below him, was able to explore where 

 few others could or cared to go. Under such conditions was his 

 herbarium formed. The Alps and the Sierra Nevada, too, \yere 

 visited by him. In 1862 he published his admirable Guide to the 

 Pyrenees, and in 1864 and 1867 new editions followed. Those who 

 would wish for more information will find it in the Alpine Journal 

 (xviii. 1896, p. 236), and the Bulletin du Cluh Alpine Franqais 

 (Oct. 1896). Among his botanical friends two demand mention — 

 Mr. G. C. Churchill, and the late Mr. John Ball, the latter, indeed, 

 a man of similar tastes ; and at one time he was a frequent visitor 

 to the Botanical Department of the British Museum. His firm yet 

 very unobtrusive character won for him immense respect, both at 



