502 BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 



which tribe may be divided into tw^o divisions, according as the 

 stamens are dissimilar or similar (or nearly alike) : Myrianthemmn, 

 with a cluster of nnmerons flowers, belonging to the former 

 division, and Tetraphyllaster, PhcBoneuron, Preussie/la, and Ortho- 

 (joneuron to the latter. The largest genus, Dissotis, affords again 

 good illustration of the mass of material which has been acquired 

 during tiie last twenty-five years. Dr. Gilg having fifty-one species, 

 Prof. Cogniaux thirty-two, while in the Flora of Tropical Africa (1871) 

 there are only twenty. We regret that the monographer did not 

 consult the herbaria in this country, as additional information would 

 certainly have been acquired, and points still left in doubt might have 

 been settled. For example, Triana, in his revision of this order, 

 gives the distribution of Otanthera cyanoides as Moluccas and Sierra 

 Leone (Afzelius). The Afzelian specimen, with Dr. Triana's 

 identification, is in the National Herbarium, and, if correctly 

 named, introduces a Malayan genus to the African Flora. It is 

 not in flower or fruit, and we are inclined to think that it is 

 probably referable to some known African species, possibly Osbeckia 

 imilti flora Sm. — E. G. B. 



Mr. V. H. Blackman, of the Department of Botany, British 

 Museum, has been elected Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. 



The Flora des Nordostdeutschen Flachlandes (Berlin : Borntraeger), 

 by Prof. Ascherson and Dr. P. Graebner, of which three parts have 

 just appeared, is extremely carefully done ; the notes, both de- 

 scriptive and geographical, being very full. AVe hope to say more 

 of it when it is completed ; meanwhile we would direct the attention 

 of British botanists to the book, which is commendable on account of 

 its cheapness, as well as on other grounds ; each part consists of 

 160 pages, and costs only one mark. The type, though small, is ex- 

 tremely clear, and the treatment of such critical genera as Sallv 

 and Care.v is careful and elaborate. One curious omission strikes 

 us : no authority is appended either to the generic or to the specific 

 names. The editors have secured the collaboration of various 

 German botanists. 



We have received from the same publishers a pretty and com- 

 pact Botaniker Kalender for 1899, edited by Prof. Sydow. Besides 

 the diary proper, which gives for each day the names and dates of 

 such botanists as were born or have died upon it, there are various 

 appendixes, containing the Berlin rules for nomenclature, a list of 

 cryptogamic exsiccata, with dates ; a list of the various botanic 

 gardens, with names of their officers ; and an extremely useful and 

 carefully done list of the principal collections of plants, arranged 

 alphabetically under the names of the collectors, with indication of 

 where they may be found. This is very comprehensive, and might 

 well be issued separately for distribution. Looking through it, we 

 note extremely few inaccuracies ; here and there, however, a state- 

 ment needs correction — " H. M. Eidley " and " Hn. Eidley," for 

 example, are one and the same person, and neither of these is his 

 correct name ; moreover, his Fernando Noronha plants are primarily 

 at the British Museum, not at Kew : the two Massons are also 



