BOOK-^'OTES, XKW?;, ETC. 141 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 



A COMMUNICATION bv Professoi' Weiss to the JSIanchesfer Guardian 

 of March 29 announces that Mr. Charles Baile}^ has presented his her- 

 barium to the Manchester University. Prof. Weiss writes : "■ The 

 acquisition of this superb collection added to the existing herbarium of 

 the Maneliester Museum, and more particularly to the large and valuable 

 collection of non-European plants presented to the University in 1904 

 by Mr. Cosmo Melvill when he retired from business in Manchester, 

 places Manchester among the foremost of British institutions in 

 respect of this necessary instrument of botanical study and research. 

 In a communication which Mr. Bailey made last Tuesday to the 

 Manchester Literarj^ and Philosophical Society, he mentions that the 

 foundations of his herbarium Avere * laid more than sixty years ago, 

 in the dingy lecture-room of the late Professor W. C. Williamson, 

 in the old Owens College in Quay Street, and it is fitting that it 

 should revert to the University of wdiich OAvens College was the 

 forerunner.' It is equally appropriate that the A^ast collection Avhich 

 has been brought together by tlie enterprise and assiduity of a 

 Manchester business man should permanently enrich the city of which 

 he was a prominent and active citizen. His long and intimate 

 connection Avith the scientific interests of Manchester, both as treasurer 

 of the Literary and Philosophical Society and as president of the 

 Manchester Field Club, and the charm of his personality, have en- 

 deared him to a long line of botanical students, and this last generous 

 gift to the University of Manchester is a fitting climax to a lifetime 

 in Avhich he devoted so much thought and all his wonderful methodical 

 energy to the building up of Avhat is at present undoubtedly the 

 finest private herbarium in Britain. The comprehensiveness of his 

 collection may be gathered from the fact that the British portion 

 contains no less than 87.000 separate sheets of mounted plants, Avhile 

 the European portion amounts to 295,000 sheets. Mr. Bailey has 

 made generous provision for the cost of transference of his herbarium 

 to Manchester, and also towards the expenses of completing the 

 mounting of the specimens, so that it may be available for study and 

 reference." An inspection of the list of the principal contents of the 

 herbarium Avhich Mr. Bailey has been so kind as to send us shoAvs that 

 these include the principal European and Oriental collections disti'ibuted 

 during the last fifty years, as Avell as numerous British herbaria of 

 interest. Among the latter may be mentioned AndrcAvs's Saxifrages 

 and the plants of De Crespigny, H. S. Fisher, John Hardy, J. Har- 

 bord LcAvis, F. T. Mott, W. L. Notcutt, and James Ward, besides 

 such sets as have from time to time been published. The herbarium 

 has been most carefully preso'ved and is admirabl}^ arranged : Avith 

 such a foundation Manchester can hardly fail to become the most 

 important botanical centre for the north of England. 



At the meeting of the General Organizing Committee of the 

 Fourth International Botanical Congress, held at the rooms of the 

 Linnean Society on February 15th, Lt.-Col. Sir David Prain, C.M.Gr., 

 presiding, the Secretary (Dr. Rendle) stilted that as the j^roposod 

 London Congress of 1915 had not been held the initiative for deciding 

 the date and place of tlie next Congress rested Avitli the Association 



