BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 463 



synonymy. The arrangement is alphabetical ; and in the recently 

 issued Part V. (pp. 1285-1380 ; price 4 francs) the work appears to 

 have reached its proper end in the letter Z. This, however, is not 

 really the case. The Index is not complete. It contains, indeed, 

 nearly 12,000 species ; bat there remain some 2000 species more 

 to be pubhshed. This remainder is of twofold origin. In the first 

 place, some rare or little known papers, overlooked by General Paris, 

 were brought to his attention. In the second, some bryologists, 

 stmiulated by the Index, have been hastily flooding the market with 

 their wares. In particular, the veteran Karl Mliller has placed 

 before the public a host of new species— probably upwards of a 

 thousand ; and it is unlikely that the sound of chippmg will yet 

 cease in his workshop. Well, General Paris holds an evergrowing 

 reserve of 2000 species ; and it was naturally expected that these 

 would appear as a supplement to the present part. But, alas I 

 Part V. contains no Supplement ; and, indeed, if a current rumour 

 may be believed, the Linnean Society of Bordeaux, under whose 

 auspices the work has been pubhshed, finding the cost of publi- 

 cation to be in excess of the original estimate, have declined to 

 carry the venture further. If this be the case, it will cause very 

 grievous and widespread dissatisfaction, and will seriously impair 

 the value of the Index. It is essential that the Index, if it is to 

 acquire the full confidence of bryologists, should be made as com- 

 plete a record of moss-references as possible. A Supplement is 

 indispensable ; and if the society is debarred by lack of funds at 

 present from completing the undertaking, if also there is no rich 

 member of the society who is willing to devote some of his super- 

 fluous wealth to the rescue of the society from an awkward position, 

 and, again, if no provision is made by the French Government for 

 aiding the publication of meritorious scientific works, cannot the 

 society be induced to make a special effort to complete General 

 Paris's Index during the year of the great International Exposition, 

 thereby conferring upon the botanists of the world an act of 

 courtesy which will be most thankfully received ? — A. G. 



We regret to record the death of Dr. James Edward Tierney 

 AiTCHisoN, which took place at Kew on Sept. 30th. He was born 

 m India on 28th October, 1836, graduated at Edinburgh and 

 entered the Bengal Medical Service in 1858. He soon^'became 

 interested in the Indian flora, and his collections provided material 

 for numerous important papers in the Journal of the Linnean 

 Society, of which body he became a Fellow in 1863. His most 

 important collections were those made in the Kuram Valley in 

 1878-80, and those made in connection with the Afghan Dehmita- 

 tion Committee in 1884. Dr. Aitchison was elected F.R.S. in 

 1883 : he is commemorated by Mr. Hemsley— who collaborated 

 with him in much of his work, and who contributes an obituary 

 notice to Nature of Oct. 13th— in the Rubiaceous genus Aitchisonia. 



Messrs. Duckworth announce for publication ' A Glossary of 

 Botanic Terms,' by Mr. B. Daydon Jackson, and « A Text-book of 

 Agricultural Botany, by Mr. John Percival. 



