288 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



short prefatory note written just before bis death, Mr. Arnold, we 

 think rightly, protests against "the growing practice" of in- 

 cluding casuals in our lists ; but when he adds, " I exclude them 

 altogether," one wonders why such things as Melilotus parvi flora 

 and Brassica monensis have been added to this edition, and why 

 Thlaspi perfoliatum is retained on the faith of an introduced speci- 

 men from Newhaven in Borrer's herbarium. There are numerous 

 omissions — e. g. Vicia gracilis and Chenopodium hybridum — and many 

 strange entries — e. g. Ranunculus intermedins and J?. Intarins appear 

 as two species, as do Malta borealis and M. pusilla; " Fumaria Borcei 

 var. Borai" \ Montia rividaris is "rapidly becoming naturalized/' 

 The Appendix, showing in tabulated form the non- Sussex species 

 that occur in Hants, Kent, and Surrey, is absolutely useless, as no 

 attempt has been made to bring it up to date since 1887. It is 

 much to be regretted that the Miss Arnolds, who have produced 

 the book, did not submit the proofs to some botanical expert ; the 

 three plates contributed by one of them cannot be considered satis- 

 factory. The book (pp. 154) is published by Messrs. Mitchell & Co., 

 Arundel, price (to subscribers) 4s. 6d. 



Alexander Somerville, who died at his residence at Hillhead, 

 Glasgow, on June 5, was born in that city in 1842. After a busi- 

 ness career in Glasgow and Calcutta, he returned to Glasgow and 

 graduated B.Sc. at the University. His love for natural history 

 led him to take up the study of the niollusea, after which he turned 

 to botany, to which he devoted himself with much energy, especially 

 in its topographical aspect. He conducted botanical classes for 

 ladies, and had a large herbarium ; he was an amiable and gene- 

 rous correspondent, and sent out admirable specimens. Most of 

 Somerville's work was published in the Transactions of the Glasgow 

 Natural History Society, in which body he took much interest and 

 was at one time president ; other papers appeared in the Trans- 

 actions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, and notes from his 

 pen will be found in this Journal ; he was treasurer of the Watson 

 Botanical Exchange Club from 1900 until his death. He became a 

 Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1881. 



Sir Dietrich Brandis, whose important volume on Indian Trees 

 we noticed on p. 36, died at Bonn (where he was born on March 31, 

 1824) on the 28th of May. He was educated at the Universities 

 of Copenhagen, Gottingen, and Bonn, and in 1856 was appointed 

 Superintendent of Forests in Pegu ; prior to this he had published 

 papers on strychnine and other subjects in German periodicals. 

 From 1864 to 1883 he was Inspector-General of Forests to the 

 Indian Government. His work, he tells us in the book already 

 referred to, was purely practical, and never left him " leisure for 

 collecting systematically or for working out scientific problems " ; 

 nevertheless, by his knowledge of the literature of the subject and 

 of the material accumulated by others, he was enabled to produce 

 the volume which may be looked upon as his most important 

 memorial, as, apart from his official reports, he did not contribute 

 largely to botanical literature. He became a Fellow of the Linnean 

 Society in 1860 and was knighted in 1887. 



