BOTANIGAL NEWS. 31 
after month, by the help of observers throughout the country, the me- 
dium of publishing such information. 
We. somewhat like the plan of re-introducing popular matter into 
our systematic works, In the good old days of Gerarde and Johnson, : 
the only botanical publications were those. which treated of the uses of 
plants. It has perhaps tended to. make the study less popular, that 
manuals of botany have been hitherto so strictly scientific. . 
Lankester may make this new feature an attractive as well as instructive 
portion of the work. 
We must defer examining Mr. Syme’s descriptions and critical ob- 
servations in detail, only saying further that this work, if carried on 
as begun, will be the most important contribution made to British 
botany since the completion of Sowerby's great work in 1814. No 
working botanist should be without it. 
BOTANICAL NEWS. 
London, February 1.—Mr. Milne, the botanical collector of Captain Den- 
ham’s yoyage of H.M.S. Herald, has sailed for the West Coast a PEE to 
explore the country around Old Calabar and the Cameroon Mouni 
The Herbarium of the late W. Borner, Esq., F.R.S., ene D. deeply 
lamented botanist, and, if possible, still more excellent man, is 
the Royal Gardens at Kew. It is probably the best British herbarium in am 
publie collection, for Mr. Borrer's great botanical attainments, his personal ac- 
quaintance with almost every part of Great Britain, and his rea 
even young students, made him loved by almost every one, and the result 
of ^s this was, that scarcely any new plant was added to the British flora, for 
years, without his being consulted, and specimens falling into his hands. 
They portions of this herbarium we have had the privilege of seeing, lead us to 
m that it ıs rich in critical species, and full of valuable notes on them, 
re especially in the circumstances under which he gathered the more doubt- 
fal plants of our flora, whose claims to be included in our lists must, we sup- 
pose, be finally settled by the observations he has made. As is the case with 
all herbaria gradually formed during a long course of years, the names found 
on Mr. Borrer’s tickets may pee not be those which he ultimately 
adopted; but every one, at all accustomed to examine plants carefully, in- 
stinetively makes allowance for cases ; dis these. The whole collection will 
ever be a monument of his deservedly high position ; for his botanical pub- 
lications, though always of great merit, were too few to manifest sufficiently 
