EDITORIAL COMMENT. 
Annales du Musée du Congo. — The Congo Free State, one of 
the last born of the nations, is demonstrating its right to a place in 
civilization by the publication of a series of monographs on its natural 
history. These are issued by the order of the Secretary of State 
as Annales du Musée du Congo. Four articles, or fascicles, have 
appeared — two “ Illustrations de la Flore du Congo,” by Wildemann 
and Durand, and two “ Matériaux pour la Faune du Congo,” by 
G. A. Boulenger. These last, by the able ichthyologist of the British 
Museum, treat of the fishes of the Congo, numerous new species 
being described with excellent figures. The Free State is to be 
congratulated on its early attention to its local natural history, as well 
as on the wise choice of the hands in which its material is placed. 
A Botanical Calendar. — Under the editorship of P. Sydow the 
first number of the Deutscher Botaniker-Kalender has made its appear- 
ance —a little book of 198 pages of text and many pages of adver- 
tisements of botanical interest. The first 108 pages are devoted to 
the calendar proper, there being one page for each week, with the 
dates of the birth and death of distinguished botanists. It is note- 
worthy that there are only twenty-two days in the year without such 
data, and on some days there are as many as four entries. The 
calendar is printed on one side of the page only, leaving the opposite 
side for notes and memoranda, for which there is also room under each 
day. The contents of the book includes the usual tables of coinage, 
weights and measures, and postal regulations ; the rules of botani- 
cal nomenclature of the Royal Botanical Garden at Berlin ; a list of 
the cryptogamic exsiccata, systematically arranged ; a list of botanical 
gardens, geographically arranged; a similar list of botanical and 
natural history museums; and, finally, an alphabetical list of the 
collections in botanical museums and herbaria. The omissions and 
inaccuracies usual to the first edition of a book of this character are 
painfully in evidence as regards American botanical matters. The 
value of the work would be much enhanced if it included the person- 
nel of the different botanical institutions given, and also a botanical 
directory. We cannot, however, but praise this effort of Dr. Sydow, 
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