BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 215 



ducts of any kind, but in the lamina there occurs an irregular circle 

 of openings which may be considered mucilage ducts, although 

 they do not possess any lining wall of special secreting cells. 

 Indeed, these openings appear more like a breaking down of certain 

 cells, and may, perhaps, be the beginning of degeneration. The 

 inner cortex is developed into thick-walled strengthening tissue as 

 is usual in the family, and it is of this tissue that the ribs on the 

 folds are composed. In the pith-web the hyphal elements are very 

 short, and the trurnpet-hyphse are very scarce and poorly developed. 

 The holdfast is simple, and the paraphyses are linear and un- 

 thickened, which, together with the simplicity of the structure in 

 other ways, would point to a branching off from the main phylum 

 of the Laminar iacece, at an early date in their development. The 

 long persistence and large size of the 1 -layered primary lamina is 

 a noteworthy feature of C. triplicata. — E. S. G. 



Mr. F. J. Chittenden has published in the Essex Naturalist 

 (xiv. 204-235) a list of The Mosses of Essex, with their distribution 



in the county. About two hundred species and subspecies, exclu- 

 sive of Sphagnacea, are enumerated. This total will doubtless be 

 raised when the northern, eastern, and southern (with its chalk) 

 parts of the county have been thoroughly searched; but the low 

 elevation of the surface, the lack of diversity in the soil, the 

 restricted rainfall, and the pernicious influence of London smoke 

 are all factors which tend to diminish the moss-flora of the countv. 







In connection with the poor rainfall the species produce fruit far 

 less abundantly, and are less luxuriant in their vegetative growth 

 than is the case in the moist counties of the west of England. The 

 two chief rarities recorded for the county are Zygodon Forsteri and 



Grimmia commutata. 



■ 



We have received various suggestions concerning the List 

 of British Seed-Plants, some of which will be incorporated in a 

 second series of " notes " similar to those published in this Journal 

 for March. Meanwhile Mr. Hanbury is actively engaged in the 

 preparation of a new edition of the London Catalogue, and we under- 

 stand that the Clarendon Press will publish a list drawn up by Mr. 

 Druce, so that the nomenclature of our British species is receiving 

 ample attention. 



The Report of the Joint Meeting of Northern Literary and 

 Scientific Societies held at Banff last summer contains what appears 

 to be a full and careful list of the plants of the neighbourhood of 

 Banff. We are glad to learn that its publication has stimulated 

 the Banffshire Field Club to undertake the preparation of a flora of 

 the county. Mr. John Yeats, Secretary of the Club, will be glad 

 to receive any assistance ; his address is 27, Castle Street, Banff. 



The Report also contains a paper by Mr. William Wilson, of 

 Terpensie, on " The Common Primrose," which is at least as extra- 

 ordinary as any of those on which we have from time to time had 

 occasion to comment — here is an example: — "Dealing now with 

 our immediate subject, and to show the confusion which exists in 

 standard works, we shall state that under Bentham we have a 

 Family Primnlacea, with a number of genera, of which the second 



