BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 151 



Eendle describes 95 species, and Ficus, of which Mr. Henderson 

 enumerates 174, 142 of them described in this part. Turning over 

 the pages, we note what seems an eccentricity in orthography : 

 specific names commemorating persons in the genitive case begin 

 with a capital letter (a practice at one time abandoned by Kew, 

 but afterwards resumed), but its adjectival form with a small one — 

 e.g. Prantlii and kraussiana. The International Rules recognize 

 no such distinction : " Specific names begin with a small letter 

 except those which are taken from names of persons (substantives 

 or adjectives) . . ." 



British Funyi and Hoio to Identify Them, by J. H. Crabtree 

 (Kelly, Is.), is a cheap little book of about 60 pages, having a small 

 note-book fitted in the cover. There is an introduction of four 

 pages, giving an account of the growth of the larger fungi and 

 their structure ; this is necessarily very condensed — in some 

 places so much so as to give a wrong impression. The statement 

 " contrary to the habit of plants generally, they [Fungi] gather 

 oxygen from the atmosphere, and after its conversion in their 

 tissues they evolve carbon di-oxide " is startling. Between thirty 

 and forty species are described, with photographs facing the de- 

 scription. The photographs in the majority of cases are excellent, 

 but some {e. g. Tricholoma i^ersonatum) would not enable a beginner 

 to spot the fungus. The descriptions are usually correct, but 

 naturally do not go very far. On page 32, concerning Blewit 

 {Tricholoma personatum), the author writes: "The common 

 names of some fungi are very arbitrary, and have arisen through 

 force of habit or custom." One would say, rather, that most of 

 the "common names" given here are simply due to the imagina- 

 tion of a previous author, who wrote in his preface : " It has never 

 been my privilege, as yet, to meet with any person versed in 

 mycology from whom I could derive instruction " ! It is strange 

 to find as the frontispiece of such a book a photograph of "an un- 

 named fungoid growth found upon a tree," when the object is 

 almost certainly Phoradendron or some other genus of Loran- 

 thacese. — J. E. 



At the meeting of the Linnean Society on March 16th, Mr. 

 0. C. Lacaita read a paper entitled, " Plants collected in Sikkim, 

 including the Kahmpong District, April 8th to May 9th, 1913." 

 He gave an account of his circular journey from Darjiling to his 

 starting point, part of it with the party of H.E. the Governor of 

 Bengal. The monotony of the forest region was mentioned, and 

 the marvellous abundance of the Aroids. An account of a new 

 Bhododendron and some critical remarks on the species of Fragaria 

 closed the introduction, and some lantern-slides of the scenery 

 and people were exhibited. 



At the meeting of the same Society on April 6th, Dr. O. Stapf 

 showed a series of maps and lantern-slides explaining the presence 

 of the southern elements of the British flora. He referred to 

 H. C. Watson's terms, "British, English, Atlantic, Germanic," 

 etc., proposed in 1835, and employed in his Cybele in 1847; 



