rich country, followed by a complete catalogue of the Ferns (44 genera, 399 species, arranged after the Synopsis Filicum ') and Orchids (78 genera, 412 species).

Messrs. Godwin & Salvin's forthcoming Biologia CentraliAmericana' will contain a full catalogue of the known species of plants of Central America by Mr. Hemsley. Among them are many previously undescribed, and of these at least a third have been drawn and lithographed. With the object of securing priority in the names, the author has recently issued Diagnoses of the new species of Polypetala (81 in number) in a small pamphlet. Of Sedum and Fuchsia a synopsis of all the species known from the regions in question is given. The name microphylla in Polygala is already occupied by a Spanish species.

Pringsheim's Jahrbuch fur Wissenschaftliche Botanik' for 1878 contains: G. Reinke on Monostoma bulbosum, Thm., and Tetraspora lubrica, Ktz. (t. 28); Woronin on Plasmodiophora [the cause of "Anbury" in Turnips, &c.], (tt. 29-32); R. Sadebeck on the development of the embryo of the Horsetails (Equisetum), (tt. 35-37); H. Bauke on the germination of the Schizæacea (tt. 38-41). This part completes the 11th volume.

OTHER NEW BOOKS. L. JUST, Botanischer Jahresbericht.' 1876. 4th and concluding part. Berlin, Eggers (18 mk.) A. S. WILSON, The Botany of three historical records : Pharoah's Dream, The Sower, and the King's Measure.' Edinburgh, Douglas, 1878. Atti della Societa Crittogamologica Italiana.' Vol. I. 1878. Milan (15 lire). — G. Bentham, Handbook of the British Flora,' ed. 4. 1878. L. Reeve (12s.)

ARTICLES IN JOURNALS.-JULY, 1878.

Scottish Naturalist. J. Stirton On certain Lichens belonging to the genus Parmelia' (continued). — Id., 'A new Scottish Lichen (Lithographa Andrewii).'-S. Buchanan White, Flora of Glen Tilt.' American Naturalist. - E. Potts, The runners of Erythonium

americanum.'

6

Bot. Zeitung.-H. Nebelung, Spectroscopic researches on the colouring matters of some fresh-water Alga' (continued). - P. Ascherson, On Eriophorum alpinum'; 'On Colchicum Ritchii, R. Br.' - Oudemans, Thecaphora Ammophila, n. sp.' - A. de Bary, On Apogamous Ferns, and the phenomenon of Apogamy in general' (tab. 12).

6

Flora. A. Minks, The Microgonidium' (continued).-G. Strobl, On the flora of the Nebrodes' (continued).-C. Kraus, 'Causes of the direction of growing shoots.'

6

Oesterr. Bot. Zeitschr.- W. Vatke, Plantæ in Africano a Hildebrandt coll.-Leguminosa' (continued). J. Wiesbaur, Bot. observations.'—- J. Freyn, 'On Ornithogalum Visianianum, Tommas.'

-F. Hauck, Alga of the Adriatic' (continued). - M. Wetschky, On the flora of Hungary.' H. Zukal, On the Lichen-question.' --E. Rathay, 'Preliminary Notice of Cladosporium Roesleri, Cattan, and the black brand" of the Vine.' - F. Antoine, 'Botany of the Vienna Exhibition' (continued).

Hedwigia.-R. Wollny, 'On Vaucheria-galls.'

Annales des Sc. Nat. (6, v., nos. 4 & 5). - E. Warming, ‘On the ovule' (continued), tt. 7-13. P. Rauwenhoff, 'On the causes of abnormal forms of plants which grow in darkness' (tt. 14, 15).

66

Nuov. Giorn. Bot. Ital. (30th July). — F. Delpino, 'Defence of the doctrine of dichogamy.' A. Todaro, 'Do the Oaks known in commerce under the names Farnia" and "Rovere" grow in Sicily?' L. Nicotra, 'Some observations on the flora of Messina.' L. Haynald, De distributione geograph. Castanea in Hungaria'; with note by A. DeCandolle. - A. Borzi, ‘Notes on biology and morphology of the phycochromaceous Algæ' (tt. 7–10). — A. Piccone, Algological flora of Sardinia.'

Journ. Linn. Soc. Lond. (No. 98, 31st July). M. M. Hartog, 'Morphological notes on certain species of Thunbergia.' - G. King, 'On the source of the winged Cardamom of Nepal.' G. Dickie, Alga found during the Arctic Expedition.'-M. J. Berkeley, • Enumeration of the Fungi collected during the Arctic Expedition.' - F. Darwin, 'Experiments on the nutrition of Drosera rotundifolia.'I. B. Balfour, Observations on the genus Pandanus, with an enumeration of all described or named species.' - J. Miers, 'On the Schopfiea and Cervantesiea, distinct tribes of the Styraceœ' (tt. 1-4).

Botanical News.

DR. ODOARDO BECCARI has been appointed Director of the Botanic Garden and of the Botanical Collections of the Natural History Museum of Florence; and M. PEDICINO, of Portici, succeeds De Notaris at Rome.

The post of Professor of Systematic Botany and Director of the Botanic Garden at Vienna has been filled by the appointment of Prof. A. KERNER.

The French Academy has elected, as "Membres Correspondants" of the section of Botany, Dr. AsA GRAY in the room of. Prof. A. Braun, and Mr. C. DARWIN in the place of M. Weddell.

The Gold Medal of Botany given by the Apothecaries' Company has been awarded to Mr. T. B. FRANKLIN EMINSON, of St. Mary's Hospital; the Silver Medal and Books to W. EGERTON STARLING, of Guy's.

The death of GUSTAV WALLIS, of Detmond, the well-known horticultural traveller, on June 20th, is recorded.

Original Articles.

ON ARISTOLOCHIA LONGIFOLIA, CHAMP.

By H. F. HANCE, PH. D.

THIS very fine species, characterized by Mr. Bentham as the handsomest of all the East Indian Aristolochia,* is one of the rarest plants in Hong-Kong. The late Colonel Champion, its discoverer, never saw it but twice in bloom; and the only flower Mr. Bentham was able to examine had been too much crushed by undue pressure in drying to allow of his making out the structure of the stamens and stylar colnmn, so that up to the present time its exact position in the genus has remained uncertain. My excellent friend the Rev. James Lamont, who has added several most interesting species, which it has been my privilege to describe, to the flora of the island, during his five years' residence, has on different occasions been so fortunate as to meet with the plant; but the flowers he gave me were never in a condition to admit of proper examination. Indeed, very great care is necessary in drying them, as they are apt to get pulpy and rotten, unless the paper is very frequently changed. In 1877, at my request, Mr. Lamont put up a freshly-gathered flower or two in alcohol; and a dissection of these enables me to give a more precise character than has yet been published, and to determine the systematic place of the plant.

Aristolochia longifolia, Champ. Rhizomate crassiusculo cortice griseo obducto hinc inde fibras tuberoso-incrassatas emittente, caulibus pluribus decumbentibus v. erectiusculis subsimplicibus tomento denso sordide ferrugineo vestitis, foliis approximatis anguste lanceolatis v. lanceolato-oblongis basi obtusis apice acuminatis coriaceis supra glaberrimis venisque concoloribus subtiliter et fere æqualiter reticulatis subtus hirsutis parenchymate viridi costa valida nervis venulisque pallidis prominulis reticulatis 6-10 poll. longis 7-12 lin. latis petiolo 4-10 lineali, racemis 3-5floris ex apice rhizomatis necnon ad caulium bases fasciculatis tomento sordide fulventi dense hirsutis, bracteis parvis lanceolatis, ovario oblongo subclavato hirsutissimo 5-lineali, perigonii extus ferrugineo-hirsutissimi valde 12-nervosi utriculo basilari haud distincto tubo semel refracto 2 poll. longo inferne amplo supra flexuram parum constricto intus præter basin pilis articulatis consitam glaberrimo ore anulo calloso notato, limbi bilabiati extus reticulato-nervosi margine undulati 6-dentati labio superiore 10 lin. longo erecto intus glaberrimo inferiore saccato intus creberrime papillato-ruguloso, columna stylina crassa oblonga in lobos Hook., 'Journ. Bot.,' vi. 117. [OCTOBER, 1878.]

N. S. VOL. 7.

*

2 P

3 erectos parallelos rugosos apice subtruncato-obtusos stigmatibus undulatis marginatos divisa, antherarum 6 circa mediam columnam æquidistantium loculis apice contiguis basi subdiscretis.

It will be evident from the above diagnosis that the Chinese plant falls into the section Siphisia of Duchartre, as was conjectured by Bentham; but it does not fit exactly into either of his subdivisions. By its only once-bent perigone-tube it agrees rather with the second one (Klotzsch's Nepenthesia *), from which it differs in habit, and in the perigone-limb being six- not three-toothed. In the two latter particulars it concords with the third subsection. (Klotzsch's Pentodon †), which, however, has a twice-bent perigonetube; but I do not think this latter character is of much value, for a little further prolongation of the tubular form, instead of its spreading out into a limb, would produce the difference, and in the present plant one lip only is erect, the other having the edges cohering, so as to form a sac, like that of Cypripedium. In the length of the lower sterile portion of the column, and its blunt flattened apex, it differs, I believe, from all other members of its section, and shows an approach to Asterolytes. Duchartre assigns parallel anther-cells to all Aristolochia, but here they are certainly distinctly, though slightly, divaricate at the base, whilst the two anthers adnate to each lobe of the column are no nearer to one another than to those of the adjacent lobes. It is undoubtedly a remarkable species, which I suppose should stand between A. saccata, Wall, and A. Thwaitesii, Hook. It appears to indicate that it might be better to unite the two subdivisions in which these are placed by Duchartre, and perhaps also to reduce Asterolytes to Siphisia.

ON SOME POINTS IN THE MORPHOLOGY OF

HALOPHILA.

BY I. B. BALFOUR, Sc.D., F.L.S.

[Notes read at the Meeting of the British Association, August 19th, 1878.‡]

Naiadacea present many peculiarities in organization. I need only refer to the terminal nature of the stamen in Naias, as described by Magnus, and to the character of the ovule in Zostera, Ruppia, &c., in support of the statement. In the morphology of Halophila, which I have recently been studying, there are several points of great interest, but I shall only here refer to two.

This genus includes a few marine plants, growing in widely spreading patches on sandy flats in the tropics, at the limits of ebb-tide. On looking at such a form as H. ovalis--the type of

*

Klotzsch, 'Die Aristolochiaceae d. Berliner herbariums,' t. ii., f. 11. Duchartre, Ann. sc. nat.,' 4e. sér., ii., t. 5, f. 6.

Klotzsch, op. cit., t. ii., f. 12.

A paper, with illustrations, on the genus Halophila, will appear in the forthcoming part of the Transactions of the Botanical Society, of Edinburgh.

the genus--we observe a procumbent, freely branched, jointed stem from almost every joint arises a branch, jointed and procumbent, like the axis from which it springs, and it in turn bears similar branches, which repeat the process. At the joints there is visible a pair of small sheathing scale-leaves, one on the under, and the other on the upper side of the procumbent stem; and in addition there is a pair of foliage-leaves on the upper side of the stem, with their bases somewhat embraced by the sheathing upper pair of scale-leaves. The arrangement is such that at first sight one might suppose we had stipulate leaves produced in pairs at successive joints on one procumbent branching axis.

But the arrangement is more complicated and, so far as I know, unique in the vegetable kingdom; and it is to this—a point briefly noticed by Irmisch many years ago-I wish, in the first place, to direct attention.

Taking any one procumbent axis as the (relative) primary axis, we find it consists of alternating elongated and shortened internodes. Each internode bears a small sheathing scale-leaf, and as every alternate internode is shortened these scale-leaves are approximated so as to appear in pairs. In each pair the leaves are always placed opposite each other; the older, that of the inferior internode, being always on the under side of the stem. The successive pairs are not superposed, as has been hitherto believed, but are set on so that their median planes form an acute angle with one another and a less acute angle with the vertically bisecting plane of the primary axis. The (relative) primary axis, no matter how greatly it elongates, only bears those scale-leaves.

In the axil of the uppermost (younger) of each pair of scale-leaves on the (relative) primary axis there arises an extra-axillary leaf-bud, always on the side of the median plane of the subtending leaf, farther from the vertically bisecting plane of the primary axis. The secondary axis so developing begins with two shortened internodes, each of which bears a foliage-leaf. These foliageleaves are always opposite one another, and are necessarily closely approximated on the axis. The third internode of the secondary axis is elongated, and bears a scale-leaf; and the fourth internode is shortened, and also bears a scale-leaf, these being placed opposite one another. Thus at the joint formed by the third and fourth nodes a pair of opposite scale-leaves occurs. Now it is curious to note that these scale-leaves are in series with the scale-leaves on the primary axis; and at every succeeding joint on the secondary axis a like pair of scale-leaves may be produced, and successive pairs will be set on at an acute angle with the preceding. We have, in fact, a repetition of what we observed on the primary axis. The upper scale-leaf of each pair on the secondary. axis gives rise to an extra-axillary tertiary axis, the first pair of leaves on which are foliage-leaves, and all succeeding pairs are scale-leaves, and so on.

Now whilst the scale-leaves on all the axes are in series, the

* Bot. Zeit., xvii. (1859), 355 adnot.