78 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



and in another gives an interesting sketch of the beach vegetation 

 at Aldeburgh, and speaks of publishing an account of Trifolium 

 suffocation u and a narration of the progressive vegetation of the 

 spot it grows on." Mr. Groves suggests that this may have formed 

 a part of the " Essay " or " Treatise " on botany which Crabbe 

 wrote but afterwards destroyed, in which case " the book might 

 have formed a pioneer essay in plant (Ecology." 



Miss Rachel F. Thompson, who died at Southport on Dec. 9 in 

 her fiftieth year, was associated with Mr. F. J. Hanbury in his work 

 on the Hieracia, and drew up the account of this difficult group (of 

 which she had an intimate knowledge) for Messrs. Grovess edition 

 of Babington's Manual. She also greatly helped Mr. Hanbury in 

 the mounting and arrangement of the Boswell Herbarium, and in 

 the preparation of the ninth edition of the London Catalogue, 

 Rachel Thompson, who was born at York, was a grand-daughter of 

 John Tatham, of Settle, from whose herbarium and memoranda she 

 and her sister extracted a number of records for Mr. Arnold Lees's 

 Flora of West Yorkshire ; others will be found in a paper by Mr. 

 Whitwell in the Naturalist for 1893, pp. 25-40. 



Dr. Stapf publishes in the Kew Bulletin No. 8 (1906) an 

 exhaustive and interesting paper dealing with the history and 

 botany of "The Oil-grasses of India and Ceylon " — various species 

 of Cymbopogon and one each of Vetiveria and Andropogon, with a 

 plate of Cymbopogon citratus. Referring to Hermann's specimen of 

 C. Xardus preserved in his herbarium in the Department of Botany, 

 Dr. Stapf says " there is attached to [it] the note— in whose hand 

 I do not know — i Calamus odoratus officinarum' " The name in 

 question is in Linnseus's hand, as are most of those in Hermann's 

 herbarium, which, as is generally known, contains the types of 

 Linnreus's Flora Zeylanica. 



■ 



The ninth number of the Kew Bulletin for 1906 brings tc a close 

 the volume for 1906. This volume, of more than 400 pages, is in 

 itself a tribute to the energy and capability of the new Director of 

 Kew Gardens. The eccentricities of the Bulletin, culminating in 

 the production of volumes consisting almost wholly of appendixes 

 tbe issue for 1904 contains 16 pages !— and the irregularity of 

 its appearance, bad made it a journal pour rire. It has now become 

 an important publication and bids fair to take a promineut place 

 among botanical periodicals. Being subsidized by the Government, 

 it can be issued at nominal cost— the last number, of over 50 pages, 

 costs only fourpence. This contains descriptions of numerous new 

 species both of flowering plants and algse, which have been elaborated 

 in connection with tbe work of the herbarium ; papers of economic 

 importance ; and biographical information— the last including » 

 lengthy biography of the late G. C. Churchill. The index for tbe 

 year completes the volume. 



There is, we think, still room for improvement in one or two 

 small but not unimportant details. The difficulties which, under 

 the late directorate, prevented the signing of contributions bave 



