94 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



This second edition is substantially a reprint of the first, 

 which was reviewed at some length in this Journal for 1900 

 (p. 55), and has long been out of print. The nomenclature has 

 been altered in accordance with the second edition of the Lister 

 monograph of the group. There are some misprints, and " the 

 South Kensington Museum " is still referred to, although, as 

 was then pointed out, " there is no such place." 



J. E. 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, 



We find we have omitted to call attention to the number 

 (dated October 26th) of The Journal of the Linnean Society 

 (Botany, xliii, 289) which is devoted to two papers of interest to 

 British botanists. The first—" Ecological Notes ; chiefly Crypto- 

 gamic " — is by the late William West, and embodies observations 

 made in Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. The second is a study of 

 " The Lichens of South Lancashire," by Messrs. J. A. Wheldon and 

 W. G. Travis, whose contributions to our own pages are sufficient 

 guarantee that the work has been thoroughly and exhaustively 

 done. It deals with the adverse conditions affecting the Lichen- 

 Flora, and its present state : a resu7ne of earlier published work 

 follows, then a systematic list, very carefully done and including 

 early records : the following novelties are described— ^ac^V/m 

 latericola, B. arceutina var. hrevispora, B. salicicola, B. ejnjjhylla, 

 B. timscomm var. atriseda, Microglcsna mida. In the issue of the 

 Journal (no. 290, dated Nov. 30) Mr. A. D. Cotton enumerates the 

 Cryptogams collected in the Falkland Islands by Mrs. Elinor 

 Vallentin in 1898-9 : the Melobesiece are undertaken by Madame 

 Paul Lemoine. Several new species are described, two of which 

 — E7idoderma maculans and Pteridmm Bertrandii — are figured. 



At the meeting of the Linnean Society on January 20th, Mr. 

 Miller Christy read a paper "On the definition of 'Eight' and 

 ' Left ' in relation to coiled, rolled, revolving, and similar objects : 

 a problem in scientific terminology," which was illustrated by 

 specimens, models, and lantern-slides. He referred to such terms 

 as " right " and " left," following or against the sun (in northern 

 latitudes)," clock-wise" and "counter clock-wise," as used by 

 biologists, and also cited terms used by mathematicians w'hich 

 could not be used by naturahsts with any advantage. He advocated 

 the usage postulated by Linnaeus in his Philosophia Botanica, 

 before he became confused and altered his definition to an absurdity 

 and recommended the use of the heraldic terms " dextral " and 

 " sinistral " as unambiguous terms. 



At the same meeting Mr. Horace W. Monckton gave a commu- 

 nication on " Some Aspects of the Flora of the Bagshot District," 

 illustrating it by specimens and lantern -sHdes of the scenery. 

 He stated : This communication deals with the area occupied 

 by the geological formation known as " the Main Mass of the 

 Bagshot Sands." About half is in Surrey, the remainder being 



