353 
m who predicted to Kew the plant from which the 
material for the e figure was obtained. It is remarkable in its 
pseudobulbs, which are sometimes over four feet high. Its 
flowers are of medium size, white, with lilac marks on the lateral 
lobes of the labellum. 
T andsome Columnea is a native of Costa Rica, where it 
appears to be one of the commonest species of the genus, and is 
found at elevations of from 5000 to 6000 feet. It is a true 
epiphyte, and has elliptic-oblong leaves 1-14 in. long, and scarlet 
hirsute corollas which when fully expanded are about 3 in. long. 
re was prepared from a plant acquired from Mr. Lemoine 
of Nancy in 1907. 
Berberis verruculosa is a Chinese deal discovered on the 
mountains around Tatien-lu in Western Szechuan by Mr. E. H. 
Wilson when collecting for Messrs. J. Veitch & Sons, who 
presented to the Kew collection the plant from which the specimen 
figured was procured. It appears to be very hardy, and forms a 
dense dwarf bush with stiffly arched branches and dark lustrous 
foliage. Its flowers are yellow and are rather large for a Berberis, 
and its oblong-ellipsoid berries are purplish-blue, about 4 in. long, 
The specific name has reference to the densely verruculose 
branches. 
Chironia laxa is a pretty species of which a plant flowered last 
year in the Cambridge Botanic Gardens, where it had been raised 
from seed sent from “Tembuland, Cape Col ony, by Canon Mason. 
The material for the figure was received from Mr. Lynch. This 
species resembles in folinee’s the well-known C. linoides, Linn., but 
the pale magenta corollas have ovate-lanceolate subacuminate 
lobes. 
Primula Wattii, a Sikkim species, belongs to the section 
Soldanelloideae which includes P. Reidii wi, Duthie, P. soldanelloides, 
Watt, and P. uniflora, Klatt. It has a scape about 4 in. high, 
bearing a dense head of violet flowers with a white mealy eye, 
and is distinguished from its allies by the bronze tint of its buds, 
the very wide calyx with feasilecl; toothed lobes, the rather 
pale white mealy hs of the corolla, and the minute pistil. The 
ing was made from a plant lent to Kew for the purpose by 
ena R. Gill & Son, Falmouth. 
Spices.*—In the Introduction to this recently published work 
Mr. Ridley very rightly observes “that the greater part of the 
spices that have been valued by man are derived from the Asiatic 
Tropics,” and it would also be "aifficult to find a work of fiction or 
travel bearing upon the Hast that does not contain some reference 
to the subject. Mr. Ridley, from his long connection with the 
Eastern Tropics, writes with authority,.and has produced a work 
of great value—not alone to the planter, but to those whose business 
lies on the commercial side of the question. 
# “ Spices,” by Henry N. Ridley, F.R.S , F.L.S., Director of Botanic Gardens, 
Straits Settlements. Macmillan & Co., 1912, 
