78 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
rere pena for amano ecology. But on the other hand 
a more careful study ofte sults in a very great reduction in the 
par of recognized mpsioadornnl which, when studied as items 
in one particular flora, seemed quite distinct, are found to be merely 
parts of a larger whole (ecads, in fact) when studied more intimately 
a flora and monographing a genus, a difference which most 
secincomiints would recognize. “Again, it is of great advantage to know 
something of the flora of a hitherto little known district, and much 
valuable information has been gained in taxonomy and geographical 
distribution by a study in the herbarium of dried plants, which, 
bosore —_ he may regret the absence of the living plant and its 
ural surroundings, must be the chief source of material for the 
taxonomists s study. We have ventured these remarks owing t to the 
and 
view on species- making, which the author seems to hold. 
ements treats of his subject under three headings,—the 
habitat, the plant, and the formation. Under the first he gives 
a full account of instruments and methods stoner for ere 
the water-content of the soil, the humidity o e air, and fac 
of light, temperature, precipitation, wind, iene of soil, chil 
mation of locality, and biotic factors. Under the plant are discussed 
its relations to the direct stimuli of water and light, ba 
and photo rer sgaers respectively, and this is followed by a section on 
experimental evolution and its methods. The last dager: ‘the 
formation,’ ical with methods of investigation and record, the 
h 
development of the formation ra a useful and a 
bie many will doubtless re helpfal’« alone will appear in the ent 
vid 
A. B. Renpue. 
BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, éde. 
LE has been appointed Keeper of the Department of 
Botany in the E British Museum (Natural afi Posto tory). a 
Ar the meeting of the Linnean Society on 21st December, 1905, 
Mr. Charles T. Druery, F.L.S., exhibited an apospo: 
Polypodium vulgare, with a frond bearing a well- defined prothallus 
” the tip. The species being impatient of close cu — renders it 
