BRITISH AXD WEST INDTAX GRASSES 357 



equipped for their work and have produced a manual which will be 

 much valued by students of the West Indian Flom. 



The descriptive list inchides 110 genera and 4.5o species, of whicli 

 one genus and 17 sj^ecies are new. The new genus, Saiigetia^ belongs 

 to the tribe Chlorideai and is placed next to Gymnojmgon. It is 

 represented by one sj^ecies from a single locality in Cuba. A frag- 

 mentary specimen had been collected by Wright in the same locality 

 in. 1865, and a visit to this by Brother Leon (Joseph Sylvestre 

 Sauget), in whose honour the genus is named, resulted in finding 

 further specimens. 



The list supplies keys to the tribes and genera, and, under each genus, 

 to the species. Brief descriptions are given of the genera and species, 

 and synonymy is cited so far as it bears on the West Indian flora. 



Owing to the independent views on nomenclature held by a section 

 of American systematists and followed b}^ the authors in this volume, 

 some generic names will be unfamiliar to many botanists, such as 

 Sijnfherisma for Digitaria, Chcefochloa for Sefaria, JS'ofJwIcvs (!) 

 for Holcus. We note also that the term lemma is used throughout 

 to express the barren glumes at the base of the spikelet. 



A. B. R. 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 



Mr. W. R. B. Oliver sends us a copy of his exhaustive stud^- of 

 " Tlie Vegetation and Flora of Lord Howe's Island" (issued July, 

 1917) reprinted from the Transactions of f lie New Zealand Insfilnie 

 (xlix. 94-161). Beginning with a general description of the island, 

 the author proceeds to a careful s^-nopsis of the plant formations and 

 associations ; this is followed by a discussion of the origin of the flora, 

 which contains four endemic genera of vascular plants — Colmeiroa 

 (Saxifragaceae), Negria (Gesneracese) and two Palms, Hedgsceiie and 

 Howea — and seventy species. Then follows the list of indigenous 

 plants, which includes one new species — Coprosma jirisca ; in this are 

 summarized the previous I'ecords, with habitats and distribution and 

 notes on the anatomy of the leaves of some of the species. A good 

 bibliography concludes the paper, which contains numerous illus- 

 trations and is in ever}^ way an excellent piece of work. We regret 

 however to note that Mr. Oliver employs trinominals — e. g. Macro- 

 piper excelsum psittacorum, Elatostemna reticulatiim grande. 



The Catholic World (New York) for October contains a memoir 

 of Dr. Edward Lee Greene (1843-1915) which, so far as it deals with 

 liis personality, is full of interest, and in this respect supplements the 

 notices which appeared in various American scientific periodicals at 

 the time of his death. From this we learn that his herbarium and 

 library" were purchased before his death by the University of Notre 

 Dame, Indiana, and that an oflficial biography is in preparation b}^ the 

 faculty of that University. We hope that those responsible for the 

 undertaking will be better acquainted with matters botanical than 

 was the writer of the memoir in question, who has an amusingly 

 exaggerated estimate of Greene's botanical work. We are told that 

 he "now bears the title of father of systematic botany in the United 

 States,'" and that '' in Europe, among other ])roud distinctions, he was 



