352 BOTANICAL NEWS. 



Baron von Mueller has made some progress with the 10th voh:me 

 •of his " Fragmcnta Phytographirc Australia?," four parts of which are 

 now issued. As the " Flora Australiensis " is so nearly completed, 

 the " Fragmcnta " may be regarded now as supplementary to 

 that yaluable Avork. Many new species continue to be added to the 

 Austi-alian list by the investigation of new districts, whilst the more 

 careful examination of others adds many new localities and fuller 

 •descriptions of known species. The last published part contains 

 a new genus, Leichhardtia {Mcninpermeoi), dedicated to the illustrious 

 and unfortunate explorer of N.E. Australia, Brown's genus of the 

 same name having been reduced to Marsdenia. Von Mueller has also 

 contributed to the Iloyal Society of Tasmania a fourth part of con- 

 tributions to the phytography of that island, which he visited last 

 year. A number of introduced European plants occur in the list, 

 among others Atiacharis canade7ms, which was first noticed about 18G2, 

 and has commenced to spread. A third sliect of the same author's 

 ■*' Descriptive Notes on Papuan Plants " has reached us. The collection 

 was mainly obtained by the Rev. S. Macfarlane, of the London 

 Missionary Society, Mr. Andrew Goldie (collecting for B. S. 

 Williams of London), and Signor d'Albertis. Most are still from the 

 coast regions and of familiar types ; greater novelty may be expected 

 when the mountainous districts of the interior has been reached. A 

 remarkable new Asplenium {A. Scolopendro2ms) is described, which 

 renders the union o^ Scolopendrhim with Asplenium almost necessary. 



Prof. Kegel's " Descriptiones Plant, nov. et minus cognitarum," 

 fascicle 4 (St. Petersburg, 1876), contains a revision of the genera 

 and species of Cycadecu and of the Russian species of Euomjmus and 

 Rhamnus, besides the usual descriptions of new plants in the St. 

 Petersburg Garden. Smirnoioia is a new genus of Lcguinmoscc. 



M. Micheli, of Geneva, contributes to the Archives of the Academy 

 of that place a review of the principal publications (some sixty-five in 

 number) relating to physiological botany during the year 1875, in 

 continuation of a similar report for the previous year. 



Mr. George R. M. Murray has been appointed a Junior Assistant 

 in the Department of Botany, British Museum, having previously had 

 the advantage of studying in the botanical laboratory at Strassburg, 

 under Prof, de Bary. 



Mr. John Home, F.L.S., who has been for some years acting as 

 Director of the Botanic Gardens at Mauritius, has been now formally 

 appointed to that position. 



Among the grants for scientific purposes made at the meeting of 

 the British Association, we notice that there is one of £20 to Dr. 

 Hooker for a " report on the Family of the Dipterocarpece.^^ 



The death is recorded, by a fall down a crevasse near Lienz, in 

 Tirol, of Dr. W. Velten, of Vienna, on the 26th August. He has 

 contributed several histological memoirs to the German botanical 

 journals. 



The Natural History Library of the late Prof. Brongniart will be 

 sold by auction at Paris on December 4th and following days. The 

 oatalogue extends to 230 pages, and the books are well classified under 

 subjects in 2480 lots. It is especially i-ich in rare brochures and 

 pamphlets, and in works on vegetable palajontology. 



