213 
BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, de. 
Ar the meeting of the Linnean Society on June 2nd, the ee 
re taken by the new President, Prof. A. W. Herdman, F.R.S., 
; sate thanked the Society for his electi on, and mentioned that the 
Linnean Society was the first scientific society he aoe early in 
life. paper, 7 On the Species of Impatiens in the Wallichian 
Herbarium of the Ra? Society,” by Sir Joseph Hooker, was 
presented to the Society by Mr. C. B. Clarke. The introduction 
described the iatartal | in question, consisting of 48 ticketed speci- 
mens, out of 200 known species of the genus; though few in number, 
these specimens foreshadow the rotnackabts’ segregation of the spe- 
cies in the several phyto-geographical regions “of “India, which has 
no parallel in any other large genus known to the author. The 
examination of the material, naturally difficult, was enhanced by 
the confusion of species on the same sheet, and several numbers for 
the same species; in the sheets exhibited the confusion can only be 
accounted for on the supposition that the plants, after having been 
laid out to be glued down, must, by some accident, have been thrown 
down or swept off the table, and then gathered together and mounted 
y an ignorant preparer. The second part of the paper consists of 
termination of the specimens. There is one previously undescribed 
species, which, collected by Walliel i in 1821, was found by Sir J. D. 
Hooker in a bundle of plants remaining (after the great distribution 
of 1831) in the rooms of the Society, for which the name Impatiens 
pretermissa is proposed. 
Tue draft of the revised Bye-Laws of the Linnean Society was 
read from pe Chair at the meetings of June 2 and 16, and will 
c 
er. 
the provision for the admission of women as Fellows and Associ 
i ha hea r 
8 as th Fello 
William Watson has therefore the unique distinction of bein ing the 
only a who ever has been, or ever will be, elected by a bare 
major 
re tes latter meeting, Dr. A. D. Waller gave an abstract of his 
paper “On Blaze Currents of Vegetable Tissues,” showing that 
these currents were symptomatic of the living tissue, and were not 
shown by dead organisms. In experimenting upon peas ide 
srieouay, the author mentioned the need of access to a garden, 
