19(J THE :NATU11AL UlSTOlir EEYIEW. 



4. Oliter — On the contractile tissues of tlic pods of Fcnfa- 

 clethra. 



The above have all received due notice in our pages, more 

 especially Dr. Hooker's Essay on Welwitschia. This essay may 

 justly be regarded as the most important special addition to the 

 literature of phsenogamic botany since the appearance of the classic 

 memoirs of Bobert Brown. Thus, whatever the botanical moiety 

 of this volume wants in quantity, it more than gains in the quality 

 of its contents. And this meed of praise its zoological contribu- 

 tors may, without disparagement of their own claims, courteously 

 accord. 



The six papers on descriptive botany are as follows : — 



1. CuKEEY — Notes on British Fungi. 



2. Hanbury — On Cassia onoschata. 



3. Mann and Wendlanj> — On the Palms of "Western tropical 



Africa. 



4. Hanburt — On the Siam Gamboge-tree. 



5. KiiiK — On WaUeria. 



0. MiERS — On the Conantlierece. 



Mr. Currey's ' Notes,' so far as published, contain diagnoses 

 and more detailed accounts of thirty-eight species of Fungi, one half 

 of which are new to science. Ten others are mentioned as new to 

 the British Flora, while the nine remaining forms display peculiari- 

 ties of structure, either previously unnoticed or interesting because 

 of their bearing on most questions touching the nature and relations 

 of this anomalous group of plants. Thus, the *cystidia,' or vesicles, 

 organs of doubtful function, to which reference was made in the last 

 number of this Eeview, (pp. G5-67), are described and figured as 

 they occur on the gills of Agaric us esculent us. Again, in Cribraria 

 Intricata, one of the Myxogasteres, Mr. Currey has observed a mode 

 of germination of the spores similar to that which takes place in 

 Spliceria lierharum and other undoubted Fungi. And in Badhamia, 

 true spore-sacs, like those of the ascigerous Fungi, occur. Tliese 

 and other facts militate against the view of De Bary that the 

 Myxogasteres should be removed to the animal kingdom. As various 

 matters of general import in connection with the organization of 

 the Fungi are referred to in these ' Notes,* they may be looked 

 upon a.s effecting a transition between the two classes of botanical 

 memoirs indicated above. 



