39 
Office, for a set of the Geographical Indices compiled by Alexander 
Knox ; and to the Trustees of the British Museum for the second 
edition of the Guide to Sowerby’s Models of British Fungi, by 
W.G. Smith, and the Synopsis of ihe British Basidiomycetes, by 
the same writer. 
copy of the second volume of the remarkably fine series of 
illustrations issued under the title of Iconographie des essences 
Jorestiéres du Japon, by H. Shirasawa, has been presented by the 
author, from whom the first volume, dated 1900, with a thin octavo 
volume of text, was received in 1902. No text accompanies the 
second volume. 
The interesting collection of the botanical manuscripts of the 
late Richard Spruce, and letters addressed to him by Sir W.J. 
Hooker, G. Bentham and others, which were received at Kew 
through the kind offices of Dr. A. R. Wallace, are referred to in 
detail in the Kew Bulletin, 1908, p. 464. 
There are many contributions to the library received through the 
kindness and liberality of their authors which prove indispensable 
for the efficient working of the establishment, and which, did space 
permit, should obtain more than the notice accorded to them by a 
mere catalogue entry ; but the value of the assistance afforded to 
ew by these contributors and by the chiefs of the various kindred 
institutions in India, in our colonies, in America and other parts of 
the world, whose publications are regularly received, is best 
estimated by the excellent use made of the literature entrusted to 
its keeping and thereby rendered freely accessible to its large staff 
and its numerous visitors. 
Botanical Magazine for January.—The plants figured are Syringa 
Bretschneideri, Lemoine, Iris minuta, Franch. et Sav., Dipelta 
ventricosa, Hemsl., Ourisia macrophylla, Hook., and Eria rhodoptera, 
Reichb. f. ee 
he Syringa was introduced into Europe from Northern China 
between 1879 and 1883; it is most nearly allied to S. Josthaea, 
Jacq. The panicles of flowers—18 in. high and 12 in, across—are 
at their best in early June, when those of the common Lilac have 
faded. The plant is therefore a valuable. garden shrub, Iris 
minuta is a beautiful little species from Japan with yellow flowers 
flecked with purple. This species is of interest owing to the 
formation of small tubers on the roots. Diépelta ventricosa, a native 
of Western China, owes its introduction to cultivation to the enter- 
