32 THE .TOUKXAL OF BOTAXT 



to be expected that any systematist will ignore the species in this 

 monograph — -or quote them as Saccardo's when they appear in the 

 Sylloge. What would Professor Stevens have done if he had en- 

 countered sixty Japanese or liussian diagnoses ? There are 86 pages 

 in the separate copies, and five plates: the latter are from " photo- 

 micrographs," and do not give sufficient detail.— J. R. 



John William Ellis, M.B., died suddenly on August 25, 1916, 

 at Liverpool while serving as Lieut.-Colonel in the Western Command 

 of the li.A.M.C. He was born at Doncaster in 1857 ; his parents 

 moved to Liverpool the same year, and except for a couple of 3'"ears 

 he resided in that city. He early became interested in natural 

 history ; besides his activities in zoology, archa3ology, and photo- 

 graphy, he was one of the best-known Lancashire botanists. In 

 1888 he won the Queen's Jubilee Prize (Grold Medal and £50) of 

 the Royal Botanical Society for an essay on " the vegetable sub- 

 stances introduced into the arts and manufactures, and as food, during 

 the fifty years of the Queen's reign." At this time Ellis was secretary 

 of the Liverpool Naturalists' Field Club, of which he was president in 

 1899 and again in the Jubilee year of the Club. He was also more 

 recenth^ a vice-president of the Liverpool Botanical Society and a 

 member of their South Lancashire Flora Committee. From, 1910 he 

 was a member of the British Mycological Society, in whose Tran- 

 sactions he published several papers on microf ungi : he also published 

 in the Vroceed'uujs of the Liverpool Naturalists' Field Club for 

 1912-14 an account of the fungi of the Wirral peninsula. — J. R. 



The Heport for 1915 of the Botanical Exchau.r/e Cluh by the 

 editor and distributor, Mr. A. R. Horwood, was issued in November 

 last. A copy has not reached us for notice, and we are thus spared 

 the necessity of criticism, for which there is abundant material. In 

 the interests of science, however, we must protest against the printing 

 by Mr. Horwood of numerous names for " varieties " of Crataegus 

 Oxi/ncantha without any satisfactory indication of their alleged 

 characters : the conversation between Mr. Druce and the editor as 

 to the validity of these, which extends over four pages and in which 

 practically no one else takes part, should surely have been confined to 

 their private correspondence, as its publication can have no possible 

 scientific value. No fewer than eight pages are occupied by a 

 discussion of the forms of Capsella Bursa-pastoris ; Mr. Horwood, 

 whose contributions are sometimes signed '*Ed." and sometimes 

 with his name, discourses at length upon these "varieties," the 

 diverse opinions as to which arouse a strong suspicion that they 

 are not worth discussion. 



The Journal will in future be published by Messrs. Taylor and 

 Francis, Red Lion Court, Fleet Street, E.C., to whom subscriptions 

 for the present year should be sent. Messrs, Taylor and Francis 

 print the pul)lications of the Linnean Society, the Annals and 

 Magazine of Natural Historg, and other scientific publications, and 

 it is conRdentl)' hoped that under their management the Journal will 

 resume the punctuality of ap])earance and regularity of supply which 

 ointil lasty^ear characterized its production. 



