235 
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES AND NEWS. 
AT last as early as the tenth of July, 1893, a prospectus 
was circulated in London announcing as “just ready” Part I. 
of the long-expected Index Kewensis. As a matter of fact it 
was not ready. The prospectus was, however, shortly after 
on its way to America, and the August number of ERYTHEA 
announced in “Notes and News’ the publication of Part I of 
the work. This was contradicted in the London Journal of 
Botany for September, and we were further informed that 
the readers of that journal were kept tolerably well acquainted 
with the progress of the Index. We were left to infer that 
the Index was not out; was not even expected, for the pro- 
spectus seems not to have been heard of there. Another 
month passed. The October number of the Journal reviewed 
the Index Kewensis, Part I. The prospectus had finally come 
to the light of the astute London editor, and its premature 
circulation was set down asa fault of Kew, and not due to any 
creative imagination on the part of the editors of ERyYTHEA. 
Notwithstanding all that has been said, we shall only know 
in an indefinite way the date of publication of the first part 
of the Index. According to the transcript of the title in the 
Journal no actual date is given other than the month and 
year. This is a criticism which applies equally well to the 
October, or any ;other number of the London Journal of 
Botany. Furthermore, the editor in his eagerness to 
locate responsibility for news notesin EryrHea does not 
guess at all well. He should confine himself to berating the 
Kew people, which is his forte—W. L. J. 
M. Henri pE Vitmorin, Director of the Jardin des 
Plantes, Paris, his brother M. Maurice de Vilmorin, and Dr. 
Hans Solereder, Docent in Botany, University of Munich 
are among the botanists who have visited California during 
the past summer while on American tours. 
THE legislative body of Victoria, Australia, concerns 
itself with the alien plants of that province detrimental to 
agriculture, A fine “ Illustrated Description of Thistles” by 
