128 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



Mr* T. E. Waltham has prepared a successful series of stereo- 

 scopic photos of plants in their natural colours, which he has lent 

 for exhibition in the Department of Botany at the Natural History 

 Museum. The series includes a number of orchid flowers and 

 other objects, as well as some general views, such as primroses in 

 a wood, water-lilies on a pond, and a border of herbaceous plants. 



We are indebted to a correspondent for the following example of 

 " science as she is taught " by our popular magazines. It is from 

 the Royal Magazine for April, one of Messrs. Pearsons' publications, 

 and is accompanied by a figure of Dionaa, labelled " Dronca Musci- 

 pula" : — " In the vegetable kingdom we find a counterpart which 

 exactly corresponds with the mouse-trap. The plants (if plants 

 they be) [!] which exist by enticing on to their leaves flies and 

 other small insects, exude a sweet gum which, when a wandering 

 insect alights upon it to feed, partially entangles its legs. In the 

 effort to release itself the insect struggles violently, and its wings 

 become involved with the same sticky substance. The time occu- 

 pied by the little insect in endeavouring to escape is long enough to 

 enable the plant to exert its consciousness, and the fatal petals, 

 which are surrounded by sharp teeth, close upon the living fly and 

 keep it a fast prisoner while its blood is absorbed by the plant. 

 Then the trap uncloses and throws out the skeleton that remains." 



Dr. Nordstedt, who is a member of the "Commission de 

 Nomenclature Cryptogamique " appointed at Vienna to report to 

 the Congress of 1910, has published {Botanisha Notiser, 1906, 

 pp. 97-106) an important paper on "The Starting-point of the 

 Nomenclature of Desmids," in which the matter is exhaustively 

 and so far as we can judge very sanely discussed. He sums up 

 his paper thus : — 



"I propose the following rules for the nomenclature of the 

 Desmidiaceas. 1. The nomenclature begins with The British 

 Desmidiese by Ralfs 1848. 2. The authors of names given earlier, 

 but accepted by Ralfs in Brit. Desm., must always be quoted as 

 such (e.g. — Ehrenb. sec. Ralfs in Brit. Desm.), except if the iden- 

 tification of the name in Ralfs* Brit. Desm. and in the works of 

 the older authors be very doubtful. 3. Exceptions. The following 

 earlier specific names have priority and must be retained : Closteriion 

 Libeilula Focke (if removed from Penium) and Desmidium cylindricuni 

 Grev. {Didymoprium cyl. Ralfs 1845). The rule 3 is naturally not 

 quite necessary. 



" For several other sections of algae there are also standard 

 works, from which their nomenclature can begin. I will here 

 mention 3 such works, although the selection of names in the two 

 last-mentioned ones has been quite too much dependent on whether 

 their authors saw original specimens or not : — Hirn, K. E., Mono- 

 graphic und Iconographie der Oedogoniaceen, 64 Tab. in 4:o. Hel- 



_ ors 1900 ; in the tables nearly all the known species are re- 

 presented : Bornet, Ed., et Flahault, Ch., Revision des Nostocacees 

 heterocystees contenues dans les principaux herbiers de France. 

 Paris 1886-88: Goniont, M., Monographic des Oscillariees (Nos- 

 tocacees homocystees). Paris 1893." . 



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