BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, ETC. 
291 
BOOK-NOTES, NEWS, etc. 
The Times of Aug. 28-29 contains an interesting account of the 
excavations at Knossos from the pen of Sir Arthur Evans, in the 
course of which he describes the treasures of the Palace. The 
designs on the walls, which “mark the epoch as the noblest attain¬ 
ment of Minoan art,” include scenes “ laid amidst rocks, with dower¬ 
ing plants or some time marine growths. Many kinds of 
flowering plants are represented, their numbers increased by the 
artist’s practice of varying the colours to suit his sense of harmony 
in the individual composition. Sometimes, too, they are hybridised, 
the leaves of one plant being coupled with the flower of another or 
with a floral reminiscence of a papyrus spray. The crocus is much 
in evidence, and the decoration of one room shows a divergence from 
the usual artistic method more in keeping with modern methods. 
Clumps of crocuses, rose coloured and blue on undulating zones, 
orange and white respectively, are in this case repeated by means of 
a stencil process, the details having subsequently been touched up. 
Among the plants that spring from the variegated rocks are Madonna 
lilies and a very fine white flower with pointed petals, undoubtedly 
Pancratium maritimum. More than one iris occurs, flowering peas 
or vetches, labiates, stellate blooms, in one case oddly combined with 
bell-shaped buds, flowering sedges, ivy and other climbing plants, and 
briar roses. Besides olive sprays there are seen impressions and 
designs of branches bearing what look like egg-shaped plums, red and 
yellow. Some of these finds raise interesting botanical and climato¬ 
logical questions.” In one group is “ a rose bush in full bloom : by far 
the earliest representation of what has been the favourite flower of so 
many later generations. The corolla, to which the artist has given 
six petals, is of a kind of golden rose colour with the centre dotted 
red, no doubt to indicate the anthers.” 
In the Transactions of the North Staffordshire Field Club for 
1922-23 is a Flora of Hawkesyard, Bugeley, by the Bev. H. P. 
Header, containing an enumeration, compiled from the writer’s per¬ 
sonal investigations, of the plants growing within a radius of five 
miles from Hawkesyard Priory; local specimens of all the plants 
mentioned in the list are preserved in the Hawkesyard Museum. 
In the same volume is a continuation of the North Staffordshire 
Flora by Mr. W. T. Boydon Badge, B.Sc., of which the first in¬ 
stalment appeared in the Transactions for 1921-2. It is well 
printed, though the placing of names of species and varieties in 
large capitals has a somewhat startling effect, and critical as to 
JEtubi , of which 48 species and numerous varieties are enumerated. 
We read that “ English names have been appended for those desirous 
of having the local names used in North Staffordshire ” ; as a matter 
of fact, nearly every species included is provided with what is styled 
an “English name” and it is difficult to suppose that all these are 
actuallv in use—e. g. Cerastium tetrandrum , which is styled “ Sea 
Mouse-ear Chick weed ” is not certainly known to occur in North 
