174 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
hapang Coes Fraxinus ornus, Acer Campestra, Betula vernicosa.’ 
an elementary work of this character we doubt whether it is 
desirable a refer to views of morphology generally considered < 
— aso as Baillon’s on the ovule of Gymnosperms, and t 
eems to a slight error in the — of the note dealing 
+h this tiniia on p. 328. It stands thus :—‘‘ Cette théorie de la 
Gymnospermie n'est pas admise par tous les. potanistes ; c’est ainsi 
que ces végétaux sont au contraire considérés par H. Baillon comme 
one un ovule orthotrope ou plus ou moins renversé. Ordinaire- 
ment réduit au nucelle et entouré d’un sac qui est un ovaire formé 
de 2 feuilles carpellaires.” These are, however, but trifling matters 
in a generally excellent work. G. 8. B. 
BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, de. 
the meeting of the Linnean Society on 19th March, Mr. 
Chiat Reid exhibited drawings by Mrs. Reid of fruits and ‘seeds 
of British preglacial and interglacial plants (Lhalamiflore). In 
each case the specimens illustrated were the earliest known repre- 
sentatives of the species. Most of the plants are still living in 
m the Cromer For 
ur seeds of Hypecoum, a genus spseadty ee of the 
Mediterranean region, and no longer found living nearer than 
Southern France. The fossil ee correspond closely with the 
living Hypecoum pendulum of Southern France, and either belong to 
that species or to a closely silted partes form. The seeds of all 
the species of Hypecoum are covered by a cae close mosaic of 
cubic crystals, apparently calcium oxalate h fill square pits in 
the surface of the testa, Traces of these pre are still found on 
some of the fossil seeds. 
Ar the same meeting Mr. G. C. Druce read a paper ‘‘On Poa 
lawa and Poa stricta of our British Floras.’’ For some years past, 
naming of these tw lanes , and to clear up a doubts the author 
has examined the material in various herbaria—of the late Pro- 
gait Ke G. Babington, the British oe at ‘the British Museum, 
the mens gathered by George Don on Loch-na-gar, the Bos- 
well- Spies set, and Smith’s colleetan in the Society’s possession. 
conclusions are that the plants have been misunderstood and 
variously named. 
A paper on ‘‘ The Botany of the Ceylon Patanas, Part II.,”’ by 
Messrs. J. Parkin and H. H. W. Pearson, was read at the same 
meeting. In a former paper on the same subject fis Linn. 
Soe., Bot. cae Gea ef) De main features of these grassy up- 
as ‘‘ patanas,’’ were given, the probable causes 
which have led ee their developmen t discussed, and the general 
biological characters of their flora described. An account of the 
anatomical ination 0 of the plants collected was now given. 
