BOTANICAL MEi;V3. 16 
t« 
for two volumes of beautifully executed drawings of Fungi and Phanerogamous 
Plants. 
Professor Alexander Eraun has laid before the Eerlin Academy a paper of 
De Bary's, " On the Urediaea?," wliicli has a special agricultural as well as a 
. more general botanical interest, showing, as it does, the belief of our farmers 
(mentioned by Mrs. Lankester in Syme's 'English Botany*) that Barberry 
bushes are injurious to cornfields to rest upon a scientific basis, and, at the 
same time, supplying the first instance of the existence of a heteroieious alter- 
nating generation in the vegetable kingdom, as it had been previously observed 
to exist in tapeworms and Trcmatodes in the animal kingdom. 
The Cryptogamic Exploring Association alluded to some months ago (the 
results of which any person may share by paying twelve shillings annually to 
Professor Buchinger, of Strasburg), has succeeded in engaging the services of 
Professor Schimper, the eminent bryologist, for this year's examination of 
Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Professor Schimper will start on hia journey 
towards the end of May, and much good may result from botanists putting 
themselves in communication with him when he visits their neighbourhood. 
Amongst the fifty-three candidates who have this year presented themselves 
for admission into the Eoyal Society, fifteen of wliom are eligible for election, 
there is but one botanist, Dr. Tliwaites, Director of the Botanic Gardens at 
Peradenia, Ceylon, whose work on the island, iu which he resides, has lately been 
completed. The name of Mr. Lovell Eeeve, the enterprising publisher of great 
botanical works^ and author of the largest conchological work ever brought cut, 
is also in the list. 
It has long been known that Professor C. C. Babington coxitemplated the 
publication of a full account of the species, or supposed species of British 
Euhi. We now learn that his manuscript is complete, but that its publication 
is delayed, owing to a liberal offer of the Syndics of the Cambridge University 
Press to undertake a very large part of the expense of the work if illustrations 
are added. We are glad to state that Professor Babington has made arrange- 
ments with Mr. J. W. Salter, F.Gr.S., for the preparation, in the course of next 
summer, of coloured quarto plates of nearly all the Brambles described by him, 
and that, when they have been engraved, the book will appear In a form re- 
sembling that of the quarto publications of the Bay Society, 
The foUowing is the list of candidates for the place of Correspondent in the 
Botanical Section of the French Academy : — In the first rank, Hofmeister ; 
in the second, De Bary, Asa Gray, J. Hooker, Parlatore, and Pringsheim. 
Hofmeister was elected by 32 out of 44 votes ; J. Hooker obtained 9, and Par- 
latore 3 votes. 
Professor Reichenbacb fil. has paid a short visit to London. 
Efforts are now making in London to raise a fund for the archaeological, 
topographical, geological, zoological, and botanical exploration of Palestine, 
each branch of research to be conducted by competent persons. The annual 
cost of each investigator, including remuneration and expenses, is set down at 
about £800. We have many scattered papers on the botany of Palestine, but 
they are not up to the mark, having been written either by second-rate men or 
