lowson’s text-book of botany 
Cl 
to write a good Indian text-book on Botany for his students, and he 
will be well-advised if he does not attempt to put his new wine into 
the old bottles. It should be added that the chief alteration in the 
present edition is the addition of a supplement in the form of a 
chapter (separately indexed) on Evolution and Genetics, in which 
the student will find an explanation of the various terms in ordered 
paragraphs. A. B. R. 
BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 
At the meeting of the Linnean Society on 14th December, 1922, 
Mr. W. O. Howartli read a paper “ On the Occurrence of Festuca 
rubra in Britain,” illustrating it with dried specimens. He enume¬ 
rated several of the forms under Hackel’s F. rubra as occurring in 
Britain, and suggested that both F. heterophylla Lam. and F. dume- 
torum Hack, non al. be considered as species altogether distinct 
from F. eu-rubra ; that the latter, now named F. rubra, should 
include subspecies fallax and genuina ; and that F. rubra var. 
genuina should include as varieties all the mentioned subvarieties and 
var .planifolia. Reasons were given for regarding Linnaeus’s F. rubra 
— F. eu-rubra var. genuina Hack.; Linnaeus’s F. duriuscula Sp. PI. 
eds. 1 and 2 ) — F. fallax Thuill. ; and Linnaeus’s F. dumetorum 
(Sp. PL ed. 2 ) — F. eu-rubra var. genuina subvar. barbata Hack, 
non al. Thus F. dumetorum Hack, is really F. juncifolia St. Am. 
Mr. H. W. Pugsley exhibited a series of specimens of British species 
of Calamintha , including a species new to this country. The in¬ 
volved nomenclature of the true Calaminthas, which were placed in 
the genus Melissa by Linnaeus, was first alluded to, and reasons given 
for treating the three recognised British species as Calamintha 
ascendens Jord., C. Nepeta Savi, and C. sylvatica Bromfield. The 
new form, first found near Swanage, in Dorset in 1900 and again in 
1912, was identified with C. beetica Boiss. & Reut., although showing 
differences in minor features, which were attributed to climatic 
influence. The salient characters of C. bcetica were pointed out and 
contrasted with those of the other British species, and the geogra¬ 
phical distribution of the new plant was indicated, with special 
reference to its interest as an additional unit in the Lusitanian element 
in the British Flora. 
At the same meeting Dr. Lily Batten gave a condensed account 
of her paper on “The Genus Folysiphonia ; a Critical Revision of 
the British Species, based upon Anatomy.” British species of Foly¬ 
siphonia show great diversity of habitat. Anatomically, the group 
is divisible into ecorticate and corticate species, and the attachment 
organ can be correlated with the anatomy of the species and the 
subtratum on which the plant is growing. Four main types are 
distinguishable :—(i) Ecorticate plant attached when young by rhi- 
zoids developed by longitudinal proliferation of basal siphons. Later, 
siphons of procumbent branches develop rhizoids, which may have 
discs at their distal ends, or may ramify among filamentous algse 
without expanding or may be swollen to form haustoria. (ii) Species 
having a number of siphons or the beginning of cortication at the 
base, show elementary aggregation of the rhizoids to form one large 
