BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 461 



We fancy, however, that it must be one of the candidates at this 

 examination who contributes a letter to the Gardeners' Chronicle for 

 Sept. 24. " These beautiful gardens," he says, " are a credit to 

 the nation and to those who manage them, and are also a boon to 

 the general public, making Kew and the neighbourhood an attractive 

 residential district. As a pubhc park for the masses, Kew is un- 

 rivalled. As a botanical college for students and scientific gardeners, 

 it cannot be surpassed. The question, however, to ventilate is, does 

 it spread among intellectual people generally as much botanical 

 knowledge as it might be made to do ? " This question the writer 

 answers in the negative, mainly, it would seem, because, "if an 

 enquirer wants to know the habitat of an English plant, so as to 

 gather it," he cannot obtain "such simple information" at the 

 Gardens. It certainly seems odd that " a gentleman in authority " 

 should have suggested that the enquirer should go to the British 

 Museum for botanical books, which Mr. Watts figuratively says 

 " was like pumping at a dry well" ; but we doubt whether the Kew 

 authorities will see their way to estabhsh "a small reference library 

 of botanical books for the use of the general public, where one of 

 the advanced students in turn could officiate." 



We are glad to announce the completion of vol. vii. of the 

 Flo7\i of Tropical Africa, the concluding part of which, save for the 

 addenda, is written entirely by Mr. J. G. Baker, and comprises 

 DioscoreaceiB, LiliacecB, and the completion of AmaryUidacecB. The 

 addenda to various orders are presumably contributed by those to 

 whom the orders were originally entrusted, and bring the work up 

 to date : it is to be regretted that each is not accompanied with a 

 reference to the page where it should be inserted. Dr. Dyer con- 

 tributes a preface, from which it would seem that the regrettable 

 delay which occurred in the continuation of the work (which 

 had been for twenty years in abeyance) was largely due to the fact 

 that the Welwitsch collections "were no longer available for study 

 at Kew." This, however, is somewhat misleading, for Welwitsch's 



plants were by no means always included in the earlier volumes 



e. g. of the 250 species of Compositce collected by him only one is 

 included in the Flora. 



In this new volume, owing to the increase of botanical know- 

 ledge, Dr. Dyer has found it necessary "to more clearly define " 

 the regions into which Prof. Oliver divided the whole area : he also 

 gives a list of the more important (and some of the less important) 

 collections which have reached Kew since 1868. We are sorry to 

 note an indication that another hitch may possibly take place in the 

 publication of the work. Dr. Dyer says that " the printing of this 

 volume has been attended with very considerable difficulties," and 

 adds, "whether it is followed by any other volumes will largely 

 depend on the extent to which these difficulties are removed." 

 But as these difficulties only attend the printing, it would appear 

 that their existence cannot be ascertained until the work is actually 

 in progress. Should they occur, we trust that, in the interests of 

 science, they may be speedily overcome. 



