128 ERYTHEA, 
ear. He was best known as the author of the Manual of 
British Plants, which was very widely used and passed 
through eight editions. The following comment is taken 
from the Gardeners’ Chronicle: ‘‘ Babington was very keen 
in discriminating slight differences, the value of which has 
been greatly enhanced since the general acceptance of Dar- 
winian views of evolution. His tendencies in this direction 
led to his being classed among the ‘ splitters,’ rather than the 
‘lumpers,’ by a former generation of botanists less apprecia- 
tive of the significance of minute differences.” It may be 
mentioned that he was one of those who worked on British 
brambles, and that his results were successful attests his fine 
analytical powers. 
Miss ALIcE Eastwoop has been studying the heteromor- 
phic foliage of Sequoia sempervirens and contributes a 
paper on the subject to the Proceedings of the California 
Academy of Sciences published May 13th. From her ob- 
servations the author concludes that all large trees of Sequoia 
sempervirens haye the upper foliage consisting of short 
stout closely appressed leaves, with gradations to the ex- 
panded distichous leaves of the lower branches; further, that 
this generalization is not true of S. gigantea. Figures of 
cross-sections of the scale-like leaves of S. sempervirens 
and of the leaves of S. gigantea show an interesting similar- 
ity in form and structure between the species. 
D. C. Eaton, Professor of Botany in Yale University and 
the greatest authority on North American ferns, died at his 
home in New Haven June 27th. Professor Eaton is one of 
the last of that generation of famous botanists of which 
Gray was the central figure. His grandfather was Amos 
Eaton, whose Manual of the Botany of North America 
was so popular that as many as seven editions were 
issued between 1817 and 1836. D.C. Eaton’s greatest work 
is the illustrated volumes on the Ferns of North America, 
but he produced very much besides this; hardly a manual, 
