BOOK-NOTES. NEWS, ETC. 39 



to outsiders 18 marks. The following parts of vol. i. will contain 

 contributions on fungi, by Prof. G. Vuillemin ; on physiological 

 subjects, by Prof* Czapek and Prof. Noll ; on hybrids since Mendel's 

 time, by Mr. Bateson ; and on tertiary fossils, by Prof. Laurent. 



A. B. K. 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 



At the meeting of the Linnean Societv on 15th November, on 

 behalf of Mr, John Cryer, of Shipley, the General Secretary exhi- 

 bited a series of twenty-one specimens of Polygala amarella Crantz, 

 selected to show its wide range of form under various conditions. 

 In a communication which was sent with the plants, Mr. Cryer 

 states that this species, which grows on the Great Scar Limestone, 

 in the West Riding of Yorkshire, was to be seen the past season in 

 great abundance over an area of about thirty-six square miles. The 

 first six specimens shown were from three to eight inches high from 

 an elevation of 750 ft. ; as the elevation increased the height dimi- 

 nished, till the plant became less than one inch high. Blue-flowered 

 specimens were found well distributed over the whole area ; white- 

 flowered specimens were unequally distributed ; rose-coloured plants 

 were only found in one locality, but there it was locally abundant. 

 Spathulate rosettes of root-leaves are the winter state of the plant. 

 One characteristic of Polygala amarella is that it can grow where 

 there is but little soil for its support. Mr. Cryer has found it 

 growing on what was almost bare rock ; it has the habit of thrust- 

 ing its roots into the cracks and crevices of rocks, or between the 

 stones and rocky fragments. Wherever he has found it, with one 

 exception, there has been little or no depth of soil. A figure from 

 specimens sent by Mr. Cryer from Grassington, and a description 

 of the plant and its locality, will be found in this Journal for 1903, 

 p. 113, t. 450. 



An amusing and interesting article on Truffle-hunting by Har- 

 wood Brierley in the Pall Mall Gazette for Dec. 8 informs us that 

 " the truffle's scientific name is 4 Tuber aestivum ' and the potato's 

 name ■ Tuber solanum ' ; therefore both are tubers, and the artichoke 

 is another.*' In a subsequent paper the same writer discourses on 

 "the mistletoe, Viscus (sic) album" "of which botanists inform us 

 there is one species only/' and proceeds to say "Is it worth while 

 making a suggestion that not mistletoe, but Loranthus europaa 

 was the sacred evergreen clipped by the Druids ? " We think Mr. 

 Brierley, whose papers indicate observation, would do well to refer 

 them to a botanist before publishing, so as to ensure greater ac- 

 curacy in details. 



Wilson 



1/ We 



preparation and will be issued in the spring. It includes a list of 

 iiowering plants, ferns, mosses, hepatics and lichens, recorded for 

 the vice-county, as well as a description of the physical geography 



