351 
stamens, may be regarded’ as conclusive: The species should 
therefore be known as Triumfetta arborescens (Seem.). Its 
synonymy and geographical distribution are as follows :— 
Triumfetta arborescens (Seem.) Sprague, comb. nov.—Heliocarpus 
arborescens Seem. Bot. Herald, 86 (1853); Hemsl. Biol. Centr.- 
Amer., Bot. i. 139, partim, excl. spec. Nicarag. 
Panama: Canton of Nat&; on the. banks. of the Rio de 
Santa Maria, Seemann 96. 
XXXVI. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 
F. W. Brrscuet.—Among the smaller collections of dried 
plants included in Sir W. J. Hooker’s herbarium which, along 
with Bentham’s, formed the basis of the present Kew Herbarium, 
was one comprising about 200 specimens collected near Caracas, 
Venezuela; by F. W. Birschel. Birschel, who was a Hanoverian 
by birth, was employed as a gardener in the Royal Gardens, 
Kew, for about two years, 1852-3. He. visited Venezuela in 
1854—some of his specimens have signed and dated labels. (e.g. 
Melochia tomentosa. and Waltheria americana), but. many are 
marked merely “ Caracas. Birschel.”” On his return to England 
about 1855 he stayed for a few months in the: Royal Gardens, 
Kew, and then obtained an appointment under Sir Joseph 
Paxton at Chatsworth, where he remained for about. two years. 
In April 1858 he was appointed Curator of Liverpool Botanic 
Gardens, where he remained some two or three years. He died 
in Liverpool a few years later. In the collection of letters pre- 
served in the Kew Herbarium is one from Birschel to Sir W. J. 
Hooker, dated April 1, 1858, asking for a testimonial in;connection 
with his Liverpool appointment. Most of the facts as to Birschel’s 
life are taken from a notice. by the late Mr. W: B. Latham ‘in.the 
Journal of the Kew Guild, 1901, ix. 38. Mr. Latham gave 
Birschel’s first initial as J., but the signature of the letter to 
Hooker is unmistakeably F. W. Birschel. Latham made Birschel’s 
acquaintance ‘‘ about 1855, on his return to Kew from a botanical 
mission to Brazil,’ and they were fellow-workers both at Kew 
and. Chatsworth. ‘‘ Brazil ’’ is doubtless a mistake for “ Vene- 
zuela.”’ : ' 
It has seemed worth while to put on record what is known of 
Birschel, as his name does not appear in the ‘“ Biographical 
Index of British and Irish Botanists,” nor in the list of collectors 
whose plants are in the Kew Herbarium (Kew Bull. 1901, pp. 
1-80). It has sometimes been misread as “ Buschel ” (cf. Journ. 
Bot. 1919, Suppl., p. 23, under Manettia calycosa). * 
é iin i ae eblats tebucky #. 
Hi) tlteedi i 
Text-book of Australian Forest Botany.*—Notebooks of 
student-days are soon outgrown : they are bulky, possess no 
index and too often are far from ideal in arrangement and neat- 
* An Elementary Text-book of Australian Forest Botany, mG. 4. 
White. Vol. I. Forestry Commission, Sydney, New South Wales. 
