288 BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 



seems to have hopelessly cod fused lucerne and saintfoin ; with 

 regard to the latter name she quotes a ridiculous passage from 

 Mr. Hilderic Friend — "who the saint intended, or what the reason 

 for ascribing divine honours (!) to the plant, does not appear": the 

 "early Christian tradition" which Miss Deas cites in connection 

 with Onobrychis is, we believe, of extremely modern growth, as are 

 far too many of the stories in this and other books like it, for which 

 an imaginary antiquity is claimed. The popular rhyme on the 

 daffodil is turned into nonsense by an alteration which speaks of 

 " a yellow petticoat and a red gown"; and the derivations are often 

 absurd, and show want of acquaintance both with plant and legend, 

 as when " bloody man's fingers" is referred to the berries of Arum. 

 There are ridiculous misprints — e.g. "the name myrtle signifies 

 sweet i^uce " (p. 199). The book, in fact, is a worthy companion to 

 the Eev. T. F. Thiselton Dyer's Folk-lore of Plants, noticed in this 

 Journal for 1889 (p. 122) ; but Miss Deas has not 'cribbed' in so 

 barefaced a manner as her reverend predecessor. 



Dr. Saint-Lager sends us his Notice sur Alexis Jordan (1814- 

 1897), of which, should our space allow, we hope to give an abstract 

 later. An excellent portrait accompanies the memoir. 



Dr. G. Beauvisage has lately published (Ann. Soc. Bot. Lyon, 

 xxii.) a notice, accompanied by a portrait, of the Eev. Xavier 

 Montrouzier, Marist missionary, who died at Saint Louis, Nomnea, 

 New Caledonia, on May 16, 1897, at the age of seventy-six. Mon- 

 trouzier botanized in Australia in 1845 and 1852 ; in 1857 he 

 collected in the Island of Art, New Caledonia, and published a 

 paper on his collections in the Memoirs of the Lyons Academie des 

 Sciences. Pancher named in his honour the genus Montrouziera. 



JoHAN Martin Christian Lange, whose name is familiar to all 

 European botanists in connection with the Flora Danica and the 

 Frodromus FlorcB Hispanicm, died on the 3rd of April, at the age 

 of eighty. 



We have received, too late for notice in this number, the first 

 instalment of Messrs. Fryer and Morgan's important monograph of 

 The Fotamogetons of the British Isles. This includes twelve admn'able 

 quarto plates and twenty-four pages of letterpress, and costs 15s. 

 uncoloured, 21s. coloured, net. Messrs. Lovell Reeve & Co. are the 

 publishers. 



We are glad to learn that the printing of the third and con- 

 cluding volume of Dr. Britten's Illustrated Flora of the Northern 

 United States has been completed, and that it will be published 

 immediately. 



A Flora of Co. Donegal, by Mr. H. C. Hart, is announced for 

 immediate publication by Messrs. Sealy, of Dublin. 



We learn from a correspondent that Dr. Francis Bossey, whom 

 we placed (p. 145) in our supplemental list of deceased botanists, 

 is still alive, and about ninety years old. 



