142 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
E, mediterranea—plants which emerged from Mr, Watson’s ordeals 
without a stain of suspicion on their character—figuring among 
aliens; and he will not be reassured by further investigation of its 
pages. Sigs he reads the preface, however, he will find that these 
and a alicized species, although placed under the general 
iens,” are ‘‘ probably natives.’’ How then did they 
alére? Because, says Mr. Dunn, they ‘‘ have so far 
usiy vely ox chiefly recorded in Floras in their non-indigenous 
localities.’ cas! the botanist who happens to have been in 
Connemara when every heath and roadside is gay with the beautiful 
St. Dabeoc’s Heath rubs his eyes, and proceeds to look up its 
history. Mr. W. R. Clarke sends him to Ray’s Historia Plantarum 
for its first record (1704), and he oak that ‘‘in montibus Mayo 
are et Sponge solo peauens est, ut et per totum Hiar-Con- 
acht in Gallo ee Moreover, its name commemorates an 
even be pre-Christian. It is of course true that the Seat has been 
noted as an saeratucion in Oxfordshire and elsewhere, and that 
Erica vagans, whose record for Cornwall goes back to 1670, has 
become intodued ~ alias places ; but how can it be asserted that 
such plants hay o far been ‘kelasively or chiefly recorded in 
Floras in their lye ae a localitie 
We think that Mr. Dunn has sc weakened the position 
he has taken up by including among ‘‘aliens” plants of which the 
above are examples. His interesting and suggestive paper on the 
origin of the ay age ae in Great Britain (Journ. Bot. 1902, 306) 
shows that he has studied our native flora with remarkable care, 
and that his phan ob are well worth ae oe 
The list as it stands contains 1194 species, one ‘of which— Lotus 
cereponoreaie chy some accident appears under two names and in 
two natural RST, and has the misfortune Ks be misspelt each 
e proofs were never sneer tp The author had intended to pro- 
duce ‘‘a more elaborate work on the subject,” but _— project, 
though not finally abandoned, has been ostponed i in consequence 
of his appointment to the Botanical and Afforestation Tick aasah 
in Hong Kong. Meanwhile he invites additions, corrections, and 
contributions, to facilitate which he has issued a bound and inter- 
leaved copy of the list, which may be had from the publishers at 
the low price of 6d. 
BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, dc. 
+ the meeting of the Linnean Society on 18 February, Mr. 
vied "Clases, of Bradford, presented a set of thirty-two photo- 
graphs to illustrate the celebrated Cowthorpe Oak, near Wetherby, 
Yorkshire. From the time of John Evelyn this oak has been de- 
ed, mea sured, and its age guessed at. Mr. Clayton, in a 
