﻿818 BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 



Irish Naturalist (Sept.). — D. MoArdle, Mosses of Castletown, 

 Berehaven. 



Journ. B. Microscopical Soc. (Aug.). — T. Comber, « The Un- 

 reliability of certain characters generally accepted for Specific 

 Diagnosis in the Diatomaceas.' 



Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschrift. (Sept.). — A. Nestler, 'G. A. Weiss' 

 (d. 17 Mar. 1894). — Id., « Untersuchungen der Faseiationem.' — 

 J. Freyn, « Plantse novte Orientales ' (cont.). — E. v. Wettstein, 

 « Euphrasia' (cont.). — F. Kriinzlin, « Orchidaceee Papuanse.' — H. 

 Zukal, ' Zur Kenntniss der Cyanophyceen,' 



BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, Sc. 

 We have received from Heidelberg a handy little book by Prof. 



r • / . i - 



is an outline of classification adapted for students when first taking 

 up systematic botany. The chief characteristics of the great groups 

 and their subdivisions down to the natural order are given in brief; 

 and under the order its geographical distribution, and, in the case 

 of the largest, the tribal divisions. Endemic genera and those of 

 economic importance are also mentioned. One side of each page is 

 left blank for notes. Very small or rare orders are omitted, and 

 for the sake of simplicity no reference is made to exceptional genera. 

 The whole occupies thirty-six pages octavo, and will form a useful 

 guide to students of the latest German system of classification. 



We are glad to learn that a new edition of the Handbook of the 

 New Zealand Flora is in preparation, and that Mr. Thomas Kirk, 

 F.L.S., has been entrusted with its execution. The work could not 

 be placed in abler hands. 



Mb. Sydney A. Skan has been appointed a second-class assistant 

 in the Kew Herbarium. 



The Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information for August is entirely 

 occupied by "a summary of information relating to Bananas and 

 Plantains," compiled, as we learn from the Gardeners' Chronicle, by 

 Dr. Daniel Morris. The botanical portion is based on Mr. J. GK 

 Baker's Synopsis of Museee, three species being added. One name, 

 although reckoned among the species and included in the clavis, 

 •'■■■■■•■■v 1 Liv<: ■"ii~.'M' - . ' : : . : . .-. 



a note appended to the name, does not believe to exist : " Wallich," 

 he says, "must have described Roxburgh's M. glauca under the 

 name nepalensis" Omitting this, the number of species enumerated 

 is thirty-four. 



Messrs. G. Philip & Son have published an interesting little 

 Handbook of Natural History for the use of Beginners, edited by the 

 Lady Isabel Margesson, with a preface by Sir M. E. Grant Duff. 

 The botanical chapters are by Professor Geddes, who writes on 

 "the Study of Flowers," by Mrs. Tindall and Miss Lorrain 

 Smith, who take up Mosses and Fungi, and by Mr. E. M. Holmes, 



