32 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 



of ScitaminecB, an exceedingly remarkable plant, was obtained at 

 Pulau Tawar. Though evidently closely allied to Zhvjiberacece, it . 

 differs from all known species in possessing five stameus, instead of 

 one only. Its anatomy will probably throw much light on the 

 structure and position of the whole group, and it has the merit also 

 of being a showy plant well worthy of cultivation. Many other 

 new species of various orders were also obtained, and many plants 

 not hitherto known from the Malay Peninsula. A very large 

 number of living plants, interesting to botanists, ornamental or 

 useful, were brought down, and though a number succumbed to 

 the difficulties of transport, about five hundred live plants and 

 cuttings seem to be thriving. Some very beautiful Didymocarpi 

 were obtained, with white, crimson, and white and violet flowers, 

 which have already commenced to flower in the Botanic Gardens. 

 Over a hundred kinds of seeds were also collected. The whole 

 collection, together with the plants obtained by Mr. liidley last 

 year in the neighbourhood of Pekan, will, when worked out, give 

 a very fair idea of the peculiarities of the flora of the Eastern Coast, 

 which has hitherto never been visited by any botanist." 



The paper of most importance in the handsome volume devoted 



to the Second Annual Report of the Missouri Botanic Garden (1891) 



is Prof. Trelease's Eevision of North American Epilobia, which was 

 noticed at p. 308 of our last volume. Mr. Shaw, the founder of the 

 garden, provided, among other things, for an " annual banquet to 

 gardeners, florists and nurserymen," some sixty of whom duly 

 assembled ; and a full report of the proceedings on the occasion is 

 given. The Hon. Isidor Bush made the last speech of the evening, 

 in the course of which he said that the " one thing which 

 Mr. Shaw most cherished was botany." Now this is exactly the 

 reverse of the case, as we remarked last June ; but it is only right 

 to remember that Mr. Bush's speech was made " at a very late 

 hour " and at the close of a festive evening. Mr. Bush proceeded 

 as follows: — M I believe that very few men, not excepting the gentle- 

 men present, know who was the first botanist and what was his 

 method of classification. Allow me to tell you that it was a man 

 whom all the world knows, and it is written in a book which the 

 whole world knows. It is in the first chapter of the book of Moses 

 called the Bible (!) And I will tell you how it reads and you can 

 convince yourself, no matter in what translation, and you will see 

 that on the third day the plants were created and that he classified 

 them in only two kinds : plants bearing seed directly, each of its 

 kind, — I know it better in Hebrew than in English, — and plants 

 bearing fruit wherein the seed is contained, each of its kind ; and 

 that was the classification of over four thousand years ago by that 

 old teacher, or law-giver as they called him, Moses. And every 

 one who will look in the Bible will find expressly this classification. 

 It is very simple. It may not be complete, but it is a botanical 

 classification." After this Prof. Trelease called attention to u the 

 lateness of the hour," and the meeting dispersed. 





