i66 NATURAL SCIENCE. Sept.. 



steamers from the House of Commons Pier." Surely such details 

 and records might be left to the Morning PostSind the Society journals, 

 which are not published by " Her Majesty's Stationery Office." The 

 " miscellaneous information " is expected to have reference to eco- 

 nomic botany, and not to the festivities of " Society." The Director 

 of Kew is commonly supposed to have exhibited a courageous inde- 

 pendence of the wishes of exalted personages, who have presumed 

 too much in their visits to the Royal Gardens, and one would have 

 expected him not to tolerate such doings at all, rather than to 

 chronicle their occurrence in the Bulletin. Even if this account be 

 followed by a more extended list of less eminent visitors on the 

 August Bank Holiday, with a report of their innocent recreations, it 

 will only show the Director's wide view of the limits of " Society." 

 The one thing would be as unjustifiable as the other, in an official 

 publication, which may, or may not, by its sale repay the Treasury 

 for the cost of its production. 



It might perhaps conduce to promptness if the editor of the Kew 

 Bulletin read Natural Science. In last year's July number (vol. i., 

 p. 327) we gave an abstract of a Colonial Report on the Aldabra 

 Islands, a small group to the north-east of Madagascar ; while the 

 Kew Bulletin for July of this year supplies " some recent information 

 about this little-known group," in great part consisting of a letter 

 from the Administrator of the Seychelles, dated June 13, 1892, which 

 merely repeats some of the facts noticed by us a year ago. About a 

 third of the article is occupied with a letter from Dr. W. L. Abbott, 

 an American, who visited the islands at the end of last year and 

 collected specimens of most of the native plants, which were sent to 

 Kew, but have, unfortunately, miscarried. His short note adds but 

 little to our knowledge of the vegetation already gained from the 

 account given by the lessee, Mr. Spurs, in the above-mentioned 

 Colonial report. Dr. Abbott says : " There do not seem to be more 

 than 35 indigenous species," while Mr. Spurs mentions 30. The only 

 trees now in Aldabra are Casuarinas and Mangroves, but decaying 

 stumps of " Porche " and " Rose- wood " show that these formerly 

 grew to a considerable size, though now only small ones exist. Mr. 

 Spurs referred to the destruction of the large trees, which he considers 

 partly due to the hurricane of 1889. 



Apropos of the Bulletin, why is it necessary to insert so many 

 official letters spread out into numbered paragraphs like a child's 

 lesson-book ? If the information, which is often of interest, were 

 boiled down and the numerous salutations, etc., omitted, the publica- 

 tion would be more readable, and the recent doubling of the price 

 rendered unnecessary. 



Dr. Otto Kuntze communicates some " Remarks on the Genoa 

 Congress" to the July number of the Californian journal, Erythea. 



