BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 95 



nearly equally divided between Berkshire and Hampshire. The 

 more important places in the district are Wokingham, Ascot, 

 Yately, Sandhurst, Bagshot, Chobham, Weybridge, Camberley, 

 Winchfield, Farnborough, and Aldershot. The greater part was 

 until recent times a tract of pine-woods, heaths, and peaty swamps, 

 and its character was mainly due to the sandy nature of the 

 Bagshot Formation and the gravels resting upon it. There is no 

 lime in these strata and, though clay occurs in places, the soil is 

 markedly different to that on the London Clay, which comes to 

 the surface around the Bagshot district. The flora of much of 

 the area resembles that of the Oak-Birch-Heath Association. 

 Other parts fit in well with the Heath Association, though the 

 author thinks that neither Genista inlosa nor Juniperics communis 

 occur, and some species (such as the Broom, Molinia, Galium 

 saxatile, Senecio sylvaticus and Serratula tinctoria) are perhaps 

 more abundant than is indicated in the list given by Mr. Tansley. 

 There are many tracts which may be described as partially reclaimed 

 heath and on which we find Polygala seryyllacea, Hyjjericiwi 

 jMrforatum, Ulex nanus, Genista tinctoria, Eyilohmm angustifoliimi, 

 Galium verum, G. erectum, Scabiosa Succisa, Solidago Virgaurea, 

 Anthemis nobilis, Eujyhrasia brevipila, Luzula multiflora, Juncus 

 squarrosus, etc. Much of the high ground forms plateaux covered 

 with gravel some 10 to 15 ft. thick, and on it we find the usual 

 heath plants : considerable areas of Vaccinium Myrtillus with 

 Scilla nonscripta, Nepeta hederacea, Teucrium Scorodonia, and in 

 damp places rushes and Polygomwi Hydropiper. 



We have received a copy of the paper summarized above, 

 which Mr. Monckton has printed for private distribution : his 

 address is Whitecairn, Wellington College Station, Berks. It is 

 nicely printed, and is remarkable for the prominence given to 

 " English " names, with which nearly every flowering plant is 

 supplied. 



To the Journal of Ge^ietics for December Miss Edith R. 

 Saunders puts forward " a suggested explanation of abnormally 

 high records of doubles quoted by growers of stocks (Matthiola)." 

 The conclusion arrived at is that doubles on the whole develop more 

 rapidly and vigorously than singles, and that where the period of 

 development is sufficiently prolonged, selection based on this 

 difference can be used as a means of securing a higher proportion of 

 doubles to the beds than corresponds with the actual output of the 

 parent plants. 



The Transactions of the Devonshire Association for 1915 (pp. 

 160-170) contains the (seventh) report, edited by Mr. W. P. Hiern, 

 of the Botany Committee. It includes records for each of the 

 eight botanical districts into which the county has been divided, 

 but contains nothing of other than local interest. 



The last part of the Journal of the Boyal Horticultural Society 

 (xli, part 2) contains an interesting paper by Mr. George Forrest 

 on " The Flora of North-western Yunnan," a region in which he 



