BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 31 
the middle of a Sean instead of at the end where we are accus- 
tomed to se | such aids. 
The second sant is wholly systematic, and the student is 
helped éish step of the way by carefully ager -up synoptic tables. 
Only a few species are described in each genus, but these are, in 
nearly every case, the most familiar examples, and such as are 
most likely to be met with by beginners. The need for more 
advanced books will doubtless make itself _ quickly felt, but a 
good foundation is laid i in the volume befor 
t section is devoted to ii hasan ek a large and 
important group but many of them microscopically small. But 
to the attempt made to render the names of the eg intelligible 
by giving ee deceneck Indeed, no pains een spared 
to make the subject not only intelligible but Brine ey and Mr. 
Swanton is to be congratulated on the success of his undertaking. 
A. L. 8. 
BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ée. 
At the meeting of the Linnean Society on December 2nd, 
1909, Mr. Clement Reid exhibited on the screen shes Soot a 
fruits and seeds of some of the plants introduced by the Rom 
into Britain. The remains have been collected principally fron 
disused Roman wells, employed subsequently as rubbish- ts: a 
he 
often sealed up under Roman pavements of later dat 
PT ie sources have been Roman Silchester, Caerwent, Pat 
and Pevensey, and to a large extent the collections have been 
made by Mr. A. H. Lyell, who has been most careful to reject any 
sepout - doubtful or later ron The fruits = seeds exhibit 
O pea, am fig, grape, mulberry ar (a very small 
eens), apple, cherries foasbalile both ‘bikes — ee sloe, bul- 
lace ce and cultivated), _ a larger plum like the “black 
plum” of Cornwall, Portugal laurel, black and white mustard, 
turnip ? ectsl: dill, pir alexanders, Cherophyllum aureum 
(a casual, perhaps introduced with packing-case rubbish from 
France, and not grown in Britain), Mellads onna, henbane, field 
poppies (Papaver Rhwas, P. Argemone), the opium ang Sena 
of this were probably used, as in Rome, reece ttered on loaves of 
ter 
found in three different rubs in Roman Silchester ; the 
branches may have been used for wreaths, as the nearest nd do 
substitute for oo bere myrtle. The Lote thus far found . 
not suggest an’ t shipping trade with t he Medit oe 
The peach, th! Rt almond, er other fruits: at wl oni ipes oo 
