WATSON BOTANICAL EXCHANGE CLUB REPORT 67 



caruleum L. Circa Stoke prope Grantham, 1780. — Bumex 

 limosus Thuill. Crowland. — Potamogeton natans L., P. gramineus 

 L. — Cladium Mariscus Br. In paludibus. — G. Claridge Druce. 



BEVIEWS. 



Tiventy-Sixth Annual Beport of the Watson Botanical Exchange 

 Club, 1909-1910. Cambridge : J. Webb & Co., Alexandra 

 Street. 1910. 



We ought to have noticed sooner this Eeport, which in many 

 respects presents an interesting contrast with that of the Botanical 

 Exchange Club which was reviewed in November last. While a 

 comparison of the two Eeports confirms us in our view that it 

 would be desirable, in the interests of British botany, that some 

 union between the two clubs should be brought about, the in- 

 creasing differences between them support the contention of those 

 who maintain the necessity of their separate existence. 



As at present conducted, the Eeport of the Exchange Club, 

 as we then pointed out, contains much which can hardly come 

 legitimately under that title : that of the Watson Club con- 

 tinues to confine itself to notices of the plants sent in by mem- 

 bers. The former is dominated by one of the most energetic 

 of our British botanists ; for the latter, with what seems an 

 excess of modesty, no name is given as editor, and we are left to 

 conjecture whether that office is filled by the Hon Secretary 

 (Mr. George Goode) or by the Distributor for the year (Dr. Eric 

 Drabble), whose names alone appear in the prefatory notes. The 

 two Eeports agree in giving much information of general interest 

 which we think might advantageously find a place in our own 

 pages. This is not, as might appear, a purely selfish view, 

 although it must be admitted that, since the estabUshment of 

 separate journals for Scotland and Ireland and of various local 

 magazines which naturally have the first claim upon matter con- 

 nected with their districts, it has been more difficult to fill our 

 pages with matter interesting to the British botanist ; but there 

 are those who do not belong to either of the clubs and more who 

 do not belong to both, and these, to say nothing of Continental 

 botanists, may easily remain in ignorance of what is contained in 

 one or other, or both, of the Eeports. 



We cannot help thinking that in both Eeports there are 

 certain details which might be altered with advantage — for ex- 

 ample, the headings of the paragraphs. It is difficult to see why 

 a paragraph should be headed " Bosa hihernica var. glabra " when 

 five persons proceed to show that whatever it is, it is not that : 

 and again, Erophila inflata, of which the communicator says 

 "Plants from this wall were named E. inflata by the Eev. E. S. 

 Marshall," is followed by a remark from Mr. Marshall, " I cannot 

 feel at all sure that the present plants ai'e true inflata," while Mr. 



