No. 374.] REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 133 
receiving. The first fascicle,’ just issued, adds one hundred and 
fifteen species to the known flora of the Congo, and describes 
twenty as new to science. 
Proprietary Rights in Science. — Another incident in the history 
of the Rouy and Foucaud ore de France, given to the curious 
reader by M. Malinvaud in the Journal de Botanigue of October 19, 
opens a question of general ethics in scientific citation. It appears 
that in the flora named a Dentaria is ascribed to a certain region 
on the authority of two persons, one of whom is one of the authors 
of the book, while it is now shown that some eighteen years ago the 
plant was found and first recorded for that locality by others. The 
author in question claims that his custom has been to cite speci- 
mens seen by himself in the course of his study. His critic evi- 
dently contends for the citation of the original discoverer. The 
practice of the more thorough American botanists would lead one to 
believe that possibly either party in the present instance is little 
more than half right, with the balance slightly in favor of the author 
who has actually seen the specimen on which an entry is made. T. 
The November number of the Johns Hopkins University Circulars 
contains, in abstract, a paper by D. S. Johnson, on the leaf and 
sporocarp of Marsilia. 
A sad chapter in the history of American biology is supplied by 
Professor Brooks’s notes on the Johns Hopkins expedition to Jamaica 
in the summer of 1897, in the Johns Hopkins University Circular for 
November, and the memorial minutes, in the same number, accom- 
panied by biographical sketches of James Ellis Humphrey and 
Franklin Story Conant. These promising biologists, the former 
already well known in botanical circles, and the latter coming to the 
front in zoology, fell victims to the ever-present fever of the tropics, 
and it may well be asked if their death should not suggest more 
care than has usually been given in the organization of expeditions 
for scientific exploration where such diseases are likely to occur. 
Students of human nature who have observed the punctiliousness 
with which the Monsieur de's in the reign of terror inscribed them- 
selves as Citoyens will find some entertainment and no small food 
for reflection in an article by Dr. Alfred Chabert on the well-known 
botanist Villars, published in number ten of the Buletin of the 
Boissier Herbarium for 1897. 
1 Durand and de Wildeman, Matériaux pour la flore du Congo. Premier fas- 
cicule. Bull. Soc. Roy. de Bot. de Belgique, tome xxxvi, pp. 47-97, pl. III-VI. 
