BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 461 



botany, who know the difficulty of getting students to write a 

 decently systematic account of the external features of a flowering 

 plant, would find a use for the schedule, which, except lor the 

 introduction of "root-stock" under root, is well arranged. Mr. 

 Wishart seems, however, to have forgotten that writing occupies 

 more room than printing, and we fear that a student will find it 

 impossible to describe his plant in the space at his disposal any- 

 thing like so fully as in the example (the wallflowers) given at the 

 beginning of the book. 



" Some New Orchids from Sikkim " is the title of two reprints 

 from the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, in which Dr. King, 

 Mr. K. Pantling, and Dr. Prain have added more than sixty species 

 and two new genera to the Indian flora. Many of these were collected 

 by Mr. Pantling at elevations ranging between 7000 and 10,000 

 feet. Among these alpine furms are three new species of Listera, 

 a genus of which only four species were previously known from 

 British India ; one, L. altemifulia, is of special interest in having 

 the leaves usually alternate. A new species of Corysanthes extends 

 the genus considerably northwards. The genus is mainly Austra- 

 lian, but runs up into Malaya, the most northern point from which 

 it has hitherto been known being the mountains of Perak. The 

 Indian species finds its nearest ally on the high mountains of Java. 

 pidiciea is a new genus of EpidendrecB. The name is manufactured 

 by distributing vowels among the initials of Dr. D. D. Cunningham, 

 who was the first to find it. It grows at an elevation probably of 

 about 12,000 feet. Mr. Pantling's work on the Sikkim orchid-flora 

 is commemorated by Dr. Prain in the new genus Pantlinyia, of the 

 tribe Neottiece, and near Limodunini. 



A Lint of Ferns and Fern Aliies cultivated in the University 

 Botanic Gardens, Cambridge, has been issued by the Cambridge 

 University Press. It consists of eiglit pages, and costs fourpence, 

 which seems dear. 



Sir C. Purcell Taylor writes to the Pdchmond and 'Vwickenham 

 Times of Sept. 25th, in which he combats the conclusions published 

 by Dr. Dyer in Nature for March 5th, 1896, concerning the " Sacred 

 Tree of Kum-Bum." It is hardly fair to make Dr. Dyer responsible 

 for the statements in the article, which consists entirely of extracts 

 firom various works, with a letter from Mr. W. W. Kockhill, the 

 Doctor's share in it being confined to an expression of his con- 

 currence in the opinion of M. Edouard Blanc, which he cites, and 

 in a qualified approval of Mr. Hemsley's determination of the tree 

 as correct. Sir C. Purcell Taylor's contradiction, apparently based 

 on personal knowledge, was so emphatic, that, in the interests of 

 science, we wrote to him for further information, having previously 

 ascertained his address, which is absent from the works devoted to 

 such matters, from the editor of the Richmond paper. In reply, 

 Sir Charles, who appends to his name the distinctions "Bart." 

 and "D.Sc," writes, on a postcard : " If you like to send me £1, 

 I will write you an account of the tree of Kuom Boom ; but, as I 

 said in my letter to the paper, I don't know anythiug about botany." 

 This being the case, it seemed hardly worth while to invest the 



