BOOK NOTICES : NOTES AND NEWS. 



223 



absurd ; Linaria supina Desf. likewise appears as a true wilding, unasterisked, 

 but uncensussed. It should have been in italic type. Campanula Rapunculus, 

 too, has no asterisk. 



The catalogue is nicely printed, with few typographical errors, but on the 

 whole must be pronounced eminently unsatisfactory. 



Second Annual Report of the Watson Botanical Exchange 

 Club, 1885-6. — 8vo., pp. 16. For private distribution. 

 We are glad to note an improvement in this latest medium of exchange. It 

 will doubtless do something toward furthering that critical study of genera which 

 is the outcome of the growing tendency to correlate British with Continental 

 forms, and subordinate our island flora to the larger one of Western Europe. In 

 the present report, however, some rather useless particulars are given concerning 

 a Dumfriesshire waterlily, and an evergreen cluster-styled Worcestershire rose, the 

 fault of which is that they state nothing definite, and do not, therefore, settle 

 anything. Mr. A. Bennett furnishes the sole (two) paragraphs that really inform 

 or explain. A good many new vice-county records are registered, though what 

 these have to do with the purposes for which the club exists is not very clear. 

 So far the report trenches upon the ground (of adding to our knowledge of distri- 

 bution by means of voucher-specimens deposited at South Kensington) occupied 

 by the Botanical Record Club since 1873. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Amongst recent elections to the Fellowship of the Geological Society of London, 

 occur the names of Messrs. Matthew Heckels (Walker-on-Tyne, near Newcastle), 

 R. Mountford Deeley (Derby), Samuel Learoyd (Huddersfield), M. H. Mills 

 (Chesterfield), James Radcliffe (Dukinfield), Robert Law (Walsden, Todmorden), 

 Edward J. Silcock (Leeds), H. M. Platnauer (York), Henry Fisher (Blackpool), 

 and Charles Brownridge (Horsforth). 



>oo< 



Many readers will learn with regret that another famous collection has gone to 

 the hammer, and will wonder what, has induced the Jardine family to dispose of 

 the well-known collection made by their distinguished ancestor. The sale of it 

 took place at Messrs. Puttick and Simpson's gallery on June 17th, but owing to 

 the date being known to few, there was a very meagre attendance of ornithologists. 

 Considerable interest attached to many specimens as the types described, notably 

 the early ones of Dr. Smith, the African collector. With the exception of the 

 Anatidse, the specimens were in fair preservation, but the lots were too large for 

 ornithologists, and the prices consequently poor. Of European forms, the Madeiran 

 variety of the Blackcap Warbler, with black cap extended to the throat (the 

 Heineken var.), attracted interest, and the lot, No. 154, which contained some 

 thirty other Warblers of no particular value, sold for £7. Among the Fringillidse, 

 lot 247, containing 43 bkds, and including some Algerian Chaffinches, sold for 

 ^■3 17s. 6d.; lot 251 composed of Buntings, sold for £3 ; lot 253, containing Cross- 

 bills and a fine Madeiran skin of the Wild Canary, fetched us. Among the more 

 interesting British forms should be mentioned Pomatorhine and Richardson's 

 Skuas and Little Auk, all from the Forth ; a Dotterel killed in Dumfriesshire in 

 the early month of March ; and a fine adult Ivory Gull, obtained by Mr. Shearer 

 in Caithness. A Red-breasted Snipe from ' Fifeshire ' appears in the catalogue, 

 but was not apparently in the sale. The type specimen of Bulwer's Petrel was 

 overlooked until the end of the sale. Lot 305 contained a Pallas' Sandgrouse from 

 Berwick. Lot 303 contained an exceptionally perfect specimen of the female 

 Pheasant, ring-necked, in nearly complete male plumage, though devoid of spurs. 

 Very few British specimens appeared in the sale, and those were generally common 

 birds, obtained near Jardine Hall. Lot 303 fetched 13s.; the female Pheasant 

 just alluded to is labelled 'Jardine Hall, 1858.' Among the few Mammalia 

 offered were a fine Felts calus (no locality) ; and several examples of the Red Bank 

 Vole, one of these bearing a locality in Dumfriesshire on its label. 



July 1886. 



