BOTANY. 861 
way would be a matter of much time and care, but the same is 
true of observations recorded in the usual manner. 
We wish that a number of copies of this interesting brochure 
could be placed on sale at the Naturalists’ Agency, so that our 
ornithologists might have the opportunity of acquainting them- - 
selves with the merits of the record, and consider the propriety 
of adopting the system. — E. C. 
BOTANY. 
Tue GreocRrarmIcaL Disrripution or Comrosrræ. — Mr. G. 
Bentham read a paper on this subject at two recent meetings of 
the Linnæan Society, in continuation of his paper on the structure 
of the same order of plants (Academy, vol. iii. p. 73). The genera 
and species of this largest order of flowering plants are about 
equally distributed between the Old and New World; of the 
genera about 410 are found in the former and 430 in the latter ; 
of species, about 4400 in the Old World and a rather larger 
number in the New. Not quite 70 species are common to the two 
hemispheres, and these mostly belong to the extreme northern 
Tegions ; a few are common to New Zealand and Antarctic America ; 
not more than a dozen tropical species are found in both the Old 
and New World, and some of these are coast plants. The form 
Which Mr. Bentham looks on as prototypic, and possibly ancestral 
to the whole order, includes a few closely allied genera, distin- 
Suished by their regular corolla, belonging rather more to the 
American than the Old World distribution, being found in Chili, 
With an outlying genus in St. Helena. Other types, apparently 
3 x great antiquity, are found in Africa, Australia, and Western 
: ETEN Since the separation of the Indo-Malayan and Austra- 
Sy regions from one another, there appears to have been a conti- 
mead of races of Compositz across the tropics from south to 
of the The paper, which enters exhaustively into the distribution 
“a ka ous tribes and more important genera, will be published 
ome“ Journal of the Linnæan Society.” — Academy. 
ae CoLorrse Marrer or Funat.— Mr. W. C. Sorby has com- 
cated to “ Nature” a series of observations on the coloring 
we” the fungi found in his own neighborhood (Sheffield in 
“Of thei eh ; So far he has been able to determine, by means 
‘thirt optical and other properties, the existence of at least 
, kn, istinet coloring matters, and he believes the number will 
eras larger. The majority of fungi contain at least two 
: 
i 
