359 
We learn that Mr. W. Nowrnz, Assistant Superintendent of 
Agriculture in Barbados, has been appointed by the Secretary of 
State for the Colonies, Mycologist and Agricultural Lecturer in 
the Imperial Departme nt of Agriculture for the West Indies, in 
succession to Mr. F. W. South (K.B., 1913, p. 125). 
Mr. Frank Gorpon WALSINGHAM, a member of the garden- 
ing staff of the Royal Botanic Gardens, has been appointed, on the 
recommendation of Kew, Assistant Director of Horticultnre in the 
Egyptian Department of Agriculture. 
several Shia from near ‘Aalet n the Sotshi district of the 
a ae which are among the Acta of the St. Petersburg 
Garden. An illustration of one of these plants, very similar in size 
to the one now at Kew, was given in K.B., 1913, p. 249. 
The following note by Prof. Fischer de Waldheim in Bull. Jard, 
Imp. Petersburg, iv., 1904, p. 69, gives interesting particulars 
about one of these remarkable ferns.—* Towards the end of 1903 
the Garden received a very precious gift from M. Scriwanek, a 
oO 
Caucasus on the shores of the Black Sea. The trunk above the 
surface of the soil is nearly three metres in circumference, half a 
metre high and carries fourteen more or less strong branches nearly 
35 cm. in ee The branches have produced leaves of extra~ 
ordinary v 
The plait: prided has a large, massive, ee protons with 
a circumference of 5 feet at the base, rising to a heig ht of 
2 feet 6 inches which has branched into eight ‘stinct stem with 
ten separate crowns, all of them furnished with strong fibrous 
rootlets. The stems extend horizontally, thus giving t ec plant a 
as these have been cut off for convenience of packing. 
These remarkable Osmundas more nearly Kuen in general 
appearance old specimens of Todea barbara than any other fern, 
and since the two genera are nearly it may be of interest to 
compare the dimensions of the Osmunda = the large =e of 
Todea now growing in the Temperate Hou 
The Todea has a breadth of 3 feet 6 enctics at the base, and 
2 feet in height, with eighteen crowns, while many of the fronds Ae 
8 feet in length. 
een ee Ww. T. 
Presentation of Orchids.—The Kew collection of orchids has been 
enriched by the presentation of a valuable collection of rere 
well-srown plants by Mrs. Sheppee, of Holly Spring, Brackn 
