﻿21i 



This astounding performance will be found in Grevillea for Sept. 

 1893, p. 82, and March, 1894, p. 65. 



I gladly admit that the index to vol. xxii. is many degrees less 

 ridiculous than that which preceded it, but it is still susceptible of 

 considerable improvement. I cannot decide — nor am I told — why 

 certain names of species are printed in italic and others in roman ; 

 nor why, when we come to " Original Articles," indexed by them- 

 selves and only under the names of their authors, some of the 

 latter are in capitals. The want of method is, indeed, as conspicuous 

 as ever. Under "Bibliography," a number of publications are 

 noticed. There is no list of these in the index, nor is it possible to 

 discover, save by wading through the volume, what have been 

 noticed. The name of an author, tout court, which might stand 

 either for a contribution by him, a reference, or a personal notice, 

 usually means that a work from his pen has been reviewed at the 

 page indicated; a mode of reference which is both unusual and 

 inconvenient. But here again are careless omissions — thus, Dr. 

 Braithwaite's Moss Flora, Mr. Wilkinson's Isle of Man Lichens, Be v. 

 A. K. Nairne's Flowering Plants of Western India (!),— apropos of 

 which the editor says, " Although not dealing with Cryptogams, 

 we are always glad to welcome any attempt to popularise the study 

 of botany " — and others, are in no way referred to in the index, 

 which is in other particulars imperfect. 



It would be easy to multiply examples and to deal with the 

 matter at greater length, but enough has been said to show the 

 necessity of something like a common principle in index-making. 

 It seems to me that the adoption of the following suggestions would 

 tend to greater uniformity and usefulness than exist at present :— 



1. All entries to be in one alphabet. 



2. Subjects under class headings to be also indexed separately. 

 8. Under the names of authors their contributions should be 



briefly indicated : in the cases of books reviewed these should be 

 entered under the authors' names, as well as under such other 

 heads as may be convenient. 



LEDUM PALUSTEE L. IN SCOTLAND. 

 By Arthur Bennett, F.L.S. 

 This plant was reported many years ago as a native of Ireland, 

 where Sir C. Giesecke was said to have taken a specimen from the hat 

 of a fisherman in the neighbourhood of Achill Head (see Hooker's 

 Flora Londinensis, t. 212).* This record has been generally regarded 



* ["This highly interesting plant ... has lately been detected by Sir 



north-west coast of Ireland, where it seems to be a denizen colony with the 

 Papaver nudicavle : for, in the immediate neighbourhood of the station for that 

 plant, namely, Achill Head, Professor Gieseck6 took the specimen here figured, 

 in a fresh state, from the hat of a fisherman. The fact of the plant growing 

 amongst the wild islands of that coast cannot be doubted."— Flora Londinemtt, 



