BOTANICAL NEWS. 31 
and standard works on elementary botany, and we have pleasure in 
recommending it as a clear exposition of the matter which every be- 
ginner must make up his mind to master before he can have anything 
like a satisfactory notion of the aim and objeet of botanical science. 
Our only regret is that the author is so far behind the age in the syste- 
„matic portions of his little book. How much he could have simplified 
it, if he had been aware of how many of the Natural Orders he upholds 
leading systematists have done away with by combining them with 
others! We counted no less than twenty Orders which are now gene- 
rally iesus The woodeuts materialy aid the author's expla- 
nations 
BOTANICAL NEWS. 
We have already announced that the Executive Committee of the Inter- 
national Hortieultural Exhibition has unanimous usly elected M. Alphonse de 
andolle, Chairman of the Botanical Congress. We have now to add that 
that distinguished botanist has formally accepted the office, and that, judging 
from the tone of our Lina? and what one hears on all sides, the election seems 
n have given great ** Tn the scientific world,” says the ‘ Reader,’ 
De Candolle’s name is a eaii of strength, and there is now every reason to 
‘tes that the Congress will be a decided success. A good many leading 
botanists have already £ given in their adhesion to the scheme, and promised 
E papers.” “No better selection could have been made," says the 
rdeners' Chronicle,' ** for M. de Candolle possesses a European reputation ; 
and we therefore congratulate the Committee on having appointed so efficient 
and influential a person to so important an office. It now remains for botanists 
and botanico-horticulturists, both of Europe and the British Isles, to be pre- 
pared to rally round the chair.” “It would have been difficult," writes the 
* Atheneum,’ “to select a scientific man better fitted for the office than the 
eading American botanist, ‘is, per vhsps, the most prominent one with the 
eultivators of science the world over,’ and is associated ‘ A a larger amount 
of botany: than | any other name; except - of Linneus.’ 
Dr d Director of the Botanic Garden 
of Adelaide, South Australia Ow readers are aware that this petii isa 
brother of the late Sir R 
are about to be published by Messrs. Trübner and Co.), and that he also tra- 
velled in British Guiana. 
Dr. H. Barth, the famous African traveller, died on the 25th of November, 
at Berlin, where he was actively engaged in philological and geographical 
studies. He was the last surviving member of the Central African expedition. 
A paragraph, which has gone the round of most of the Continental news- 
