i8o 



NA TURE 



[June 21, 1906 



admitted to the Spa on the production of their tickets. 

 It has also been arranged that the train shall stop at Castle 

 Howard to enable any members to pay a visit, but it is 

 understood that only a portion of the house and gardens 

 will be available. 



Harrogate, Brimham Rocks, and Pateley Bridge ; con- 

 ductor, Mr. W. Ingham. 



Ripon, .Studley Park, and Fountains Abbey. — The 

 Marquess of Ripon has kindly promised to entertain a 

 party of about loo to luncheon, and the Mayor of Ripon 

 will entertain the same party to tea. 



Ilkley and Bolton Abbey. 



Coxwold, Byland .Abbey, Helmsley, Duncombe Park, and 

 Rievaulx .'Vbbey. — It is expected that the party will be 

 entertained at Duncombe Park by the Earl of Feversham ; 

 conductor, the Rev. C. N. Gray. 



Wensleydale ; conductor, Mr. W. Home. 



Mount Grace, Guisborough, and Whorlton Castle. — 

 .Admiral Challoner has kindly invited the party to dinner, 

 and it is expected that the Lord-Lieutenant of the North 

 Riding will provide luncheon ; conductor, Mr. F. J. Munby. 



Driffield, Kirkburn, Wetwang, &-c. ; conductor, the Rev. 

 E. Maule Cole. 



Aldborough and Boroughbridge. — Three steam launches 

 have been engaged to convey the party ; conductor, Mr. 

 .\. S. Lawson, who will provide luncheon and tea. 



A small guide-book will be prepared for each of 

 the above excursions. It is understood that there 

 will be also the usual semi-private excursions arranged 

 in connection with several of the sections. 



The exhibition of South .African photographs taken 

 by the inembers last year promises to be of much 

 interest. There is ample accommodation for it at 

 the reception room, and an active committee has the 

 matter in hand. 



KEW PUBLICATIONS. 



"T^HE "miscellaneous information" supplied from 

 ^ the Royal Gardens at Kew has ever been 

 welcome to botanists and to those concerned in the 

 utilisation of vegetable products. The earlier publi- 

 cations of Sir William Hooker and of his son and 

 successor, Sir Joseph Hooker, are full of interesting 

 matter with which the botanical and horticultural 

 Press of the day was, owing to limitations of space, 

 hardly able to cope. 



Of late years such was the pressure of adminis- 

 trative duties that the publication of the Bulletin 

 became very erratic. So much was this the case that 

 we had almost given up the hope of seeing anything 

 but " appendices " to volumes that seemed never 

 destined to appear. In , this we were mistaken. 

 Within the last month or two we have received for 

 notice the Kew Bulletin for the years igoo, 1901, 1902, 

 ic)03, 1904, and 1905.' 



Soine of these volumes are of exiguous proportions, 

 but there they are, and the troubles of librarians and 

 bibliographers are, in so far, set at rest. Much of the 

 information is, of course, far from being up to date, 

 and in some cases the gentlemen mentioned as having 

 been appointed to fill certain positions have paid the 

 debt of Nature before their nomination has thus been 

 made public. 



In spite of these circumstances we can but rejoice 

 that the publication has been resumed, and that the 

 sequence of the volumes is no longer interrupted. 

 The contents are so " miscellaneous " that they do 

 not lend themselves to anything like systematic re- 

 view. We can onlv put the books on our reference 

 shelves and welcome the fact, not only that the old 

 gaps are, to some extent, filled up, but that there is now 

 everv prospect of the regular issue of that Bulletin to 



1 "Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information." Royal Botanic Gardens, 

 Kew. (H.M. Stationery Office, 1900-05.) 



NO. 19 I 2, VOL. 74j 



which we look for an official record of the manifold and 

 most important work done at Kew. 



A " Catalogue of Portraits of Botanists Exhibited 

 in the Museums of the Roval Botanic Gardens, Kew," 

 by Mr. James D. Milner, clerk and acting assistant- 

 keeper and secretary to the National Portrait Gallery, 

 has also just been published. The catalogue is intro- 

 duced with a preface by the late director of the Royal 

 Gardens. To botanists it forms a very interesting, 

 but, wc must add, a very incomplete list. Kew 

 probably possesses a much larger number of portraits 

 than are here mentioned, so that it is difficult to 

 understand on what principle the selection has been 

 made. The words " exhibited in the museums " do 

 indeed implv that there are other portraits not thus 

 displayed, but unless we are mistaken, or unless 

 some re-arrangement has taken place recently, there 

 are not a few hanging on the walls of the museums 

 which are not included in the list. At any rate, we 

 look in vain for any mention of the Balfours, father 

 and son, of John Ball, of Broome, Babington, B. C. 

 Clarke, Casimir de Candolle, W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 

 Eichler, Engler, A. Dickson, Farmer, Gardiner, 

 Munro, Miers, Prain, Reichenbach, Seemann, William- 

 son, and many others whom it would be tedious to 

 enumerate. No doubt many of these are " kept in 

 portfolios," and can be inspected on application, but 

 the absence in the catalogue before us of even the 

 names of these more or less distinguished botanists 

 gives an impression of serious incompleteness which 

 is probably not justified by the facts. This is the more 

 unfortunate as the collection is stated to be "probably 

 unique." If so, the catalogue is very inadequate, as 

 mav be seen, not only by the few illustrations we have 

 cited, but also by comparison with Dr. Wittrock's much 

 fuller " Catalogus Stockholmiensis." The text, too, 

 requires revision. In one place we are told of a bust 

 wearing spectacles, and of another bust " in a ruff and 

 fur-lined coat." On another page we are told of a 

 botanist who graduated eighteen years before he was 

 born ! 



There are other indications of imperfect proof- 

 reading, to whicli we direct attention in the hope that 

 the defects mav be remedied in a subsequent edition. 

 Tlie catalogue, even in its present condition, is of 

 such p-reat interest that we cannot doubt that no 

 long time will elapse before a second edition is called 

 for, and one which can readily be made more re- 

 presentative of the progress of botany, especially in 

 our own countrv. 



B.4i?OiV C. R. VON DER OSTEN SACKEN. 



SYSTEM.'VTIC entomology has sustained a great 

 loss by the death of Baron Osten Sacken, as 

 announced in Nature of May 31. 



Baron Osten Sacken was born at St. Petersburg 

 on August 21, 1S28, and at the age of eleven his 

 interest in entomology was aroused by his meeting, 

 at Baden-Baden, a young Russian entomologist, Mr. 

 Shatiloff, who gave him his first instructions in 

 collecting Coleoptera. Between 1849 and 1856 he held 

 an appointment in the Imperial Foreign Office, and 

 published papers on the re-classification of the 

 Tipulida, as well as a list of the insects of the St. 

 Petersburg district excluding Lepidoptera. His ap- 

 pointment, in 1856, as secretary of the Russian Lega- 

 tion at Washington opened up the second period of 

 his entomological career in the United States. In 

 1862 he was appointed Russian Consul-General at 

 New York, a post which he resigned in 1871, re- 

 maining, however, in .America until 1877. 



During this period of twenty-one years the main 



