126 
TILE JOUltNAL OF BOTANY 
ology of Weeds. The plant described in the February issue is the 
“Upright Star-fruit”— Acanthospermum hispidum, a native of Brazil, 
the Argentine, and Tropical America, which has recently been intro¬ 
duced into South Africa and is troublesome to sheep-farmers on 
account of its burs, which are disseminated in various ways. The 
description is accompanied by excellent figures, showing the plant 
and its germination, with details of root and leaves. A similar series, 
on the Poisonous Plants of South Africa, is issued as an independent 
publication by the Department: the first is devoted to “Tulp”—a 
name applied to various species of Homeria and Morcea —with a 
coloured figure of H. pallida ; the second to “ Slangkop ”— JJrginea 
Burkei and U. macrocentra , both of which are similarly figured. 
The Botanical Magazine , now published quarterly for the Boyal 
Horticultural Society and edited by Dr. Stapf, contains in its February 
issue figures and descriptions of eleven interesting plants, three of 
which— Fuphorhia anoplia , Amorphopli alius cojfeatus , and Lachen- 
alia convallariodora, all of Stapf—are new. The new artists—A. 
Keller and L. Snelling—have not yet acquired the facility of Miss 
Smith, as will be seen by comparing their work with her plates in 
the present number; Dr. Stapf’s notes appended to each species are 
somewhat longer than we have been accustomed to, and contain much 
interesting information as to the distribution and the like. 
The Gardeners ’ Chronicle of Feb. 24 contains an article by 
Mr. W. lioberts giving a full description, with reproductions from 
photographs of the title and last pages, of The Orchard and Garden, 
published anonymously in 1596. The work, which was reprinted in 
The Journal of Pomology for August 1921, is of course mainly of 
horticultural interest, but horticulture and botany have many things 
in common, and gardening books of early date usually contain infor¬ 
mation which concerns both ; it is interesting to note that Adam Islip 
(fl639), the printer of The Orchard —of which the copy described 
by Mr. Boberts is believed to be unique—was one of the three 
printers of Johnson’s edition of Gerard’s ITerhal. In the Chronicle 
for March 3 Mr. B. P. Brotherston gives—also, it would appear, 
from a unique copy—a full account of The Planters' Florists’’ and 
Gardeners ’ Pocket Dictionary, by James Gordon, an Edinburgh 
nurseryman, for whom it was printed in 1774: “there is a very 
interesting note on flowers produced from seeds; Gordon believed 
that double flowers were degenerates, and notes that stocks, wall¬ 
flowers, marigolds, larkspurs, and others, from seeds self-sown on 
gravel walks, gave more doubles than elsewhere in the garden.” 
The Bulletin de la Societe Botanique de France (lxix. 7, S ; 
20 Jan.) contains “ Semi-liermaphroditisme chez le Mercurial is 
annua f by A. Beynier; “ Etude sur la vegetation des vallees en 
Provence,” by J. Arenes; “ Phyllostachys aurea , sa fructification,” 
by J. Daveau ; “ Un nouvel hybride de Satire ( S . negata : S.fragilis X 
cinered), by P. Fournier; “ Etude morphologique des*inflorescences du 
Humulus Lupulusf by M. & Mine. Fernand Moreau ; “ Une anomalie 
chez la Violette,” by E. L. Gerbault; “ Etude biocliimique de la 
chute des feuilles,” by B. Combes & D. Kohler; “ Puccinia 
