176 THE JOURNAL OP BOTANY 



essay on the British Mosses. The plan of the book is briefly as 

 follows. Two typical forms, one thallose {Pellia epiphylla), the 

 other foliose {Diplophyllum albicans), are described clearly and in 

 simple language. The principal groups of Hepaticae are then 

 treated in turn — Ricciece, Monoclece, Antliocerea, Marchantiece, 

 JungermanniecB. And finally such general matters as leaves, 

 gemmas, modes of reproduction, alternation of generations, are 

 discussed. The tables of unicellular and multicellular gemmae, 

 their various forms and their place of reproduction in various 

 genera of Jwigermannia, are helpful and instructive. Exception 

 may be taken by systematists to the position given to Monoclecs, 

 and especially to the inclusion of Galohryum in the group. There 

 is a tendency nowadays to range Monoclea near to Targionia 

 among the lower Marchantiece. ; and Galohryum is akin to Fossom- 

 bronia. Again, the Anthocerece should hold a detached position 

 right outside the Hepaticse. However, these questions of classifi- 

 cation do not affect the real value of the book for the elementary 

 student, for whom the author has provided an attractively written 

 essay, containing a well-digested and simplified account of the 

 morphology, anatomy and life-history of a difficult but interesting 

 group of lowly plants. — A. G. 



We are somewhat surprised that Mr. Praeger's Open-Air 

 Studies in Botany (Griffin), which we noticed at some length on its 

 first appearance (Journ. Bot. 1897, 453), has only now reached a 

 second edition. It is one of the best books introductory to a 

 knowledge of wild flowers in their homes — indeed we might say 

 the best, for we know of no other volume which tells so much 

 about plants as they actually live, or which is so charmingly illus- 

 trated by pictures from " photographs from nature." We cannot 

 do better than repeat what we said in the notice referred to : "In 

 a word, Open-Air Studies is the very thing to put into the hands 

 of those who want in small compass an intelligible and accurate 

 introduction to field botany." This second edition, which is in- 

 scribed to the memory of the late S. A. Stewart, "a true field 

 naturalist," has been revised throughout, though this has involved 

 little alteration ; the nomenclature has been brought into line with 

 the British Museum List of Seed-Plants. The publishers still 

 disfigure the title-page of review copies with an ugly violet stamp, 

 to which is added an indication in ink that the book costs 6s. net. 



John H. Hart, who was born in Suffolk in 1847 and died at 

 Trinidad, Port of Spain, on the 20th of February, had been Super- 

 intendent of the Botanic Gardens there since 1887 ; he had pre- 

 viously been Director of the Jamaica Botanical Department. In 

 1908 he issued a list of the plants contained in the herbarumi of 

 the Botanical Department at Trinidad, which includes the collec- 

 tions by Lockhart, Purdie, Finlay and Prestoe, as well as more 

 recent collections made by himself and others. An enumeration 

 of the Ferns and Fern Allies of the British West Indies and 

 Guiana, by G. S. Jenman, was edited by Hart and published in 

 fragments with the Bulletin of the Botanical Department issued 

 under his direction, and was subsequently issued as a volume. 



