360 BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 



the appointment in the House of Commons, said that Dr. Morris 

 " not only had all the scientific and other knowledge in the 

 possession of the authorities at Kew, but also special acquaintance 

 with the West Indies." If this be the case, the loss to Kew will 

 be serious, if not irreparable, and we can readily agree with the 

 Secretary for the Colonies that Dr. Morris is " marked out by special 

 qualification for an important position of this kind." Natural Science 

 says : — " We fear that the learned gentleman will not be welcomed 

 with open arms by the many botanists in these parts, which already 

 have an excellent botanical garden and staff in Jamaica." 



Mr. Fisher Unwin has published in his " Masters of Medicine" 

 series an interesting life (price 3s. 6d.) of Dr. William Stokes 

 (1804-1878), the eminent Dublin physician, by his son, Sir William 

 Stokes. He was the second son of Dr. Whitley Stokes, whose name 

 is familiar to British botanists, and in his younger days frequently 

 accompanied his father (of whom a sympathetic sketch is given in 

 the volume) upon his rambles after plants, though it does not appear 

 that he followed up botanical studies in his later years. The volume 

 is full of interesting reading and of side-lights upon Irish history. 



The Westminster Gazette informs us that Philip Miller " was the 

 author of the much-admired ' Gardeners' Chronicle ' " ! 



The German deep-sea expedition sailed from Hamburg on 

 August 1st on board the ' Valdivia,' one of the Hamburg-American 

 liners, chartered for the purpose. The route to be followed is, 

 speaking roughly, round Africa ; but before going south, the expe- 

 dition crossed to Leith, where they were entertained by Sir John 

 Murray, and shown specimens, &c., obtained by the ' Challenger.' 

 The ' Valdivia ' was then to steam round the north of Scotland and 

 test the various nets and apparatus on her way to the Cape de Verde 

 Islands. The scientific staff on board includes a chemist and a 

 navigator, as the work undertaken by the expedition is not ex- 

 clusively biological, but also oceauographical. Besides the study of 

 the plankton and the deep-sea fauna, there will be an investigation 

 of the various chemical constituencies of the sea- water of different 

 depths, and along the whole route soundings and temperatures will 

 be taken. Questions of navigation will be dealt with, and the 

 direction of ocean currents. The expedition expects to return to 

 Hamburg in May, 1899. 



The last number of the Joimial of the Linnean Society [Botany) 

 contains Mr. Druce's paper " On the occurrence of Carex helvola in 

 Britain," of which a brief summary was given on p. 156; and a 

 short paper by Mr. Clement Reid " On Limnocarpns, a new genus of 

 fossil plants from the tertiary deposits of Hampshire": the Latin 

 diagnosis of the genus requires considerable revision from a literary 

 standpoint. Mr. F. N. Williams's '' Revision of the Genus Arenaria " 

 is a careful and scholarly piece of work ; 168 species and numerous 

 varieties are enumerated and described. 



The July number of the Kew Bulletin contains a large number of 

 diagnoses of new African plants, and is further noteworthy as having 

 appeared during the month indicated as the date of publication. 



