452 BULLETIN OF MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION. 



a medium of communication. Still, they can get it for 4d. — it is 

 in the "April" number — and we reprint elsewhere the introductory 

 summary, the literary style of which leaves much to be desired : it 

 is accompanied by two roughly drawn plates. In some cases — 

 e.g. under Chitonia (pp. 116-128) — the same error of quotation occurs 

 that appears in Cooke's British Fungi. Mr. Massee, we observe, 

 retains the name Myxogastres, and makes no reference to Mr. 

 Lister's revision of the group. 



The other paper will interest those who pay special attention 

 to African botany; it is another instalment of the "Diagnoses 

 Africanae," and contains nearly two hundred descriptions of new 

 or newly-named species ; it occupies the double number for 

 August-September, which dates from the latter month. A large 

 proportion of the novelties are from the collections made by Mr. 

 Alexander Whyte in North Nyasaland. Mr. Whyte's previous 

 collections were sent to the British Museum, where they were 

 worked out, the novelties having been published in Trans. Linn. 

 Soc. 2nd S. iv. 1-68 : we presume there was some reason, not 

 apparent on the face of it, why these later gatherings found another 

 destination. Others are from Central Madagascar, collected by Dr. 

 Forsyth Major; from Angola (Welwitsch) ; East Africa (Elliot 

 and Volkens — misspelt "Volckens") ; Cameroons (Bates) ; Central 

 Africa (Kirk) : among the grasses several plants from the older 

 collectors are taken up by Dr. Stapf, who is responsible for this 

 part of the work. 



Many of the species belong to large genera, and it is to be hoped 

 that due care has been taken in establishing them. Some fear, 

 however, may be expressed on this head, and is justified by the 

 treatment which has been meted out to the Welwitsch plants, not 

 only on this but on former occasions.* Whyte's plants have not, 

 so far as we know, been distributed, and it is not possible to express 

 any opinion as to the value of the species based upon them ; but 

 Welwitsch's are widely spread, and it is to be regretted that Mr. 

 Baker has not noticed that some of his novelties have already been 

 published by other botanists. Hermstaedtia [Hermbstaedtia] Wel- 

 witschii Baker, for example, based on Welwitsch 6502, has been 

 anticipated by H. argenteiformis Schinz in Verhandl. Bot. Ver. Prov. 

 Brandenburg, xxxi. 209 (1890) ; Psilotrichum rubellum Baker (Welw. 

 6509) = Centema biflora Schinz in Engl. Bot. Jahrb. xxi. 183 (1895) ; 

 the name Sericoma Welwitschii applied by Mr. Baker to Welw. 6501 

 was employed by Sir Joseph Hooker in Gen. Plant, iii. 30 (1880), 

 for Welw. 6508. Taken in connection with previous slips of the 

 same kind, this seems to show that the excellent practice of writing 

 up species as soon as they are published, which ni Prof. Oliver's 

 time used to prevail at Kew, has been abandoned. The matter 

 becomes more serious when we remember that Kew is responsible 

 for the Flora of Tropical Africa, which should presuppose an 

 intimate acquaintance with the literature of the subject. It is, 

 indeed, almost impossible to understand how such recent and 



* See Journ. Bot. 1894, 85 ; 1895, 77, 225. 



