80 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
their liberation into the ground remains to be discovered, but 
experiments conducted at Kew prove that soil once infected pro- 
duced a diseased crop even after a period of five womre. ©’ 
€ same meeting was read a paper on Valeriana dioica by 
P. Gregory. The author stated that in 1877 Hermann 
ears to 
scribed by Darwin in Rhamnus catharticus. It has been found 
that the individuals of Valeriana dioica may be conveniently 
arranged in four groups which are distinguished as, respectively, 
“female,” “ hermaphrodite,” “long-styled male,” and. “ short- 
styled male.” But while the central types of each group are 
readily distinguishable, it must be distinctly recognized that they 
are connected by a series of intermediate forms, and that there is 
no discontinuity between successive groups. The precise structure 
of the flowers of each plant varies considerably as regards the 
cases ery wide ra 
dependent of the age of the flower. The experimental work of 
breeding together the various forms has met with little success. 
A’ Handbook of Trees and Shrubs, to quote the title-page— 
on the cover the book is styled The Planters’ Handbook—is 
appear in its. pages. For the former we are indebted to (Miss ?) 
Frances Bunyard; for the text, which includes the latter, to Mr. 
proofs ? On the page at which we first opened (p. 123) we found 
se Aitchinsonii,” “florabunda,” “callycinum’”’; on the next (p. 113 
* Choisza,”’ “ Eucreyphia,” “Carmichele” : 
names are mispelled—« Euonymous” and “ Liquidamber” face 
each other on pp. 136, 137. Itis a pity that the book should be 
thus disfigured, as the illustrations are unusually good, 
