21 
The Cyperacem of the West Indies.—The first fasciculus of the 
second volume of Dr. I. Urban's Symbole Antillane seu Funda- 
Indian Cyperaces, elaborated by Mr. C. B. Clarke, F.R.S., &c., 
from the collections at Kew, supplemented by those at the British 
Museum, Berlin, Paris, &c., 'includin g the types of many imper- 
fectly-known Re rom the piod remote gources. Although 
very full synonymy is given, Mr. Clarke does not, he informs us, 
profess to invo absolutely ex hausted even the West Indian 
geographical range. The most remarkable fact that has come 
out in this enumeration is the large number of species common 
to West tropical Africa and the West Indies. This feature is also ` 
common to the mainland of America and Africa, and prominent 
in this connection is the inii equal distribution of the species 
of the distinct genus Mapania, section Eumapania, in Guiana 
and Guinea. With regard w senate limits, Mr. Clarke has not 
departed much from Bentham ‘and Hooker’ 8 a Plantarum, 
except in Cyperus, which he divides into Pycreus, Juncellus 
Cyper us, Mariscus, and Torulinum ; and here he oa restores 
generic rank, 
Scientific Zum by the Staff. —Dr. D. H. Scott in his third 
paper, “On Structure and Affinities of the Fossil Plants of 
the preoc Rocks” (Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. 191, pp. 81-126) 
describes the stem and roots of a fossil fern-like plant—Medullosa 
anglica—from the coal measures of Lancashire. Medullosa is a 
i 
than any other Medullosa ; it is more completely preserved, an 
more simple in structure. Moreover, it is the only form as yet 
formed in Britain. 
. W. Pearson in his paper on * The Botany of the 
Ceylon Patanas " (Journ. Linn. Soc, xxxiv., pp. 300-366) gives 
an account of investigations made during a visit to Do in 1897 
upon the vegetation of the grass lands of the Central Plateau of 
the island, "These grass-lands are the so-called peras and lie 
between 2,000 and T feet. The native graziers. find in them a 
by firing the poras wiry herbage to to procure a fresh bite. As 
each recurring fire burns the edge of the forse, S adding a little to 
the grass land, these patanas appear to be the work of centuries of 
repeated co: conflagrati on. The natural forest of Central Ceylon 
above vu feet is a * wet forest ' that below 4,500 a ‘Savannah 
forest.’ Changed to grass | and the ‘ wet forest’ becomes a 
wet moor,’ and natural FoutToréetation remains possible when 
