208 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, dx. 



The executors of the late Baron von Mueller invite subscriptions 

 (which should be addressed to the Rev. W. Potter, Arnold Street, 

 South Yarra, Melbourne) towards the cost of erecting a monument 

 on his grave. The supplementary volume of the Flora AustraJicnsls, 

 which the Baron was preparing for the press at the time of his 

 death, will shortly be published, as well as an account, in two 

 volumes, of his administration as Director of the Botanic Gardens, 

 which will include a biography and complete bibliography. 



In The Olieinistnj of the Garden, by Mr. H. H. Cousins (Mac- 

 millan : Is.), the author has rendered a useful service by stating 

 plainly, concisely, and clearly how plants are to be fed if they are 

 to thrive. There is no more important subject for practical 

 gardeners than that of manuring, and yet unfortunately compara- 

 tively few understand it. The gardener must not look upon 

 the soil as a dead mass of dirt, but rather as a kind of cupboard, 

 containing all kinds of food for plants ; and as this is emptied of 

 this food by the absorption of the rootlets, means must be found 

 for replenishing it. An intelligent system of manuring does this. 

 Science and practical experience prove that very few foods are 

 essential for the welfare of plants in general, although some of 

 course prefer a larger quantity of one food than another. By 

 keeping the soil well stocked with nitrates, phosphates, and potash 

 — according to the nature of the crops — the gardener or farmer 

 does all that is necessary ; and he is told how to do this in Mr. 

 Cousins's little work. 



At the meeting of the Linnean Society on March 17th, Mr. 

 Clement Reid, F.L.S., read a paper on Limnocarpus, a new genus 

 of fossil plants from the tertiary deposits of Hampshire. This new 

 genus occurs in the oligocene strata of the Isle of AVight and the 

 Hampshire coast. It is closely allied to Potamof/eton and to Ruppia, 

 but has a succulent fruit with two deeply-pitted stalked carpels 

 adhering by their ventral edges. The seed is curved round a 

 lateral process from the cell, as in the pondweeds. So few tertiary 

 plants can be proved to belong to extinct generic types, that the 

 discovery of this one is of interest. Though clearly allied to the 

 recent pondweeds, the inclusion of Liianocarpiis will necessitate a 

 modification of the ordinal characters. 



Dr. Frank Rand, whose '"'wayfaring notes" we published in our 

 last issue, has again left England for Rhodesia, where he hopes to 

 make further collections for the National Herbarium. 



The Rev. Charles William Perry, M.A., died at Wokingham 

 on March 30, at the age of sixty. Mr. Perry had been for over 

 thirty years bursar and assistant-master at Wellington College, and 

 had for many years taken an interest in the plants of the neigh- 

 bourhood; lists by him were published in the Reports of the' 

 Wellington College Natural History Society for 1869-74, and a 

 useful summary of his botanical work is given by Mr. Druce in his 

 Flora of Berkshire (p. clxxx). 



