BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 4038 
Chara under the sections Haplostephane and Diplostephane, sub- 
ordinating the stipulode character to mn of the wane with 
the result that C. gymnopitys, hydropitys, and Hornem are 
separated from the ae ae C. ireanti: and plaged. ‘babwed 
C. vulgaris and C. fragilis. The key to the species is in some parts 
not altogether shtisfactory, as, for ‘eitanoe. when the presence or 
absence of calcareous incrus tation is used asa character. The 
descriptions of the species are full and carefully drawn up, and 
measurements of the various parts are given. The paragraphs 
dealing with the geographical distribution might, we think, with 
the case the species, instead of merely indicating 
the limits af their dstibatio n. A fuller reference to published 
specimens would also @ been desirable. Of the fifty species, 
twelve are Tasmebnd as ential new, while fourteen are eases 
varieties or forms elevated to specific rank. exander Braun, in 
his later works, reduced a number of his former apelin to sub- 
pee. and varieties, and from Mr. Robinson's statement it appears 
that en's final views tended in this direction. Mr. Robinson 
takes the opposite course. For instance, fifteen of his species 
included in Braun a J 
] hough we may not agree with w of species, we 
cannot but recognize that such saver and complete descriptions of 
the segregates must have a certain value. e work contains a 
large amount of information, and is eee a valuable contri- 
bution to Po literature = the group.—H. & J. G. 
Dr. THe E Cooxs’s Flora of the Presidency of Bombay con- 
tinues to mae sati eae progress. The most ge instalment 
(vol. ii. part 3) carries on the cue Ra fro érbenacee to 
Euphorbiacee. At the end of the principal genera ie short descrip- 
tions of the non-indigenous species which are frequent in gardens 
throughout the Presidency—a feature which adds to the practical 
ntility of the work. Dr. Cooke rightly ctl out aed the correct 
spelling of the genus often written Petraa—e.g. by Engler & Prantl 
and Bentham & Hooker—is, both on etymological ana historical 
seegcinds Petrea. 
Mr. Rwwtey publishes in the Journal of the Straits Branch of 
the Royal Asiatic Society the results of an expedition to Christmas 
Island undertaken by him in 1904. He made a complete collection 
of the flora of the island, to which his list records many additions 
d a certain number of new species—Limacia nativitatis, Grewia 
osmoaylon, G. insularis, Eugenia gigantea, Zehneria alba, Hepta- 
pleurum natale, Ardisia pulchr a, Asystasia alba, Boerhaavia cespitosa, 
Balanophora insularis, ee c@rulescens, Dendrobium pectinatum 
(D. Macrai Rendle), Corymbis angusta, Zeuxine exilis, Pandanus 
nativitatis (which should te compared with P. ivisbiiiteesls Martelli 
in Webbia, p. 362), P. elatus, Panicum clivale and Selaginella rupi- 
cola, A list of the plants probably introduced to the island by 
sea-currents is added. 
Tue Institute of Commercial Research in the Seas in con- 
nection with the Liverpool University is issuing a Quarterly 
