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SCIENTIFIC PAPERS OF ASA GRAY. 121
Sci.'Uiiusi Arbuscula a. Braun. — A note appeared in the
' Scottish Naturahst' for last January on the occurrence of this
plant at two localities in N.E. Scotland, in which Mr, John Roy
states that "this, as far as I can make out, is the first time it
lias been found in Britain." I believe Mr. Roy is the first to give
a definite station for it ; I can add another, as in the early part of
last summer I found fine examples of it on MijriojjhyUum from
Crummock Water. Wm. West.
Crepis fcetida L. in Northamptonshire. — In Morton's ' Nat.
Hist, of Northamptonshire,' p. 364, 1712, he states:— "Of the
plants described by botanists, but not known by Mr. Ray to be
natives of our island, and therefore not noted in his * S}Tiopsis,'
we may be assured the following is one, viz., Hieracium Apulum
Jiore Suave rxihenti, Col. : the Hieracium annuum Amigdalas amaras
olens, D. Bobarti. This herb Mr. Bobart, the worthy Professor of
Botany at Oxford, informs me he himself found in Northamptonshire,
somewhere between Towcester and Whittlebury Forest, the
particular place he could not recollect." An examination of the
plants collected by the younger Bobart showed that there still
exists a specimen labelled as above by Bobart, but unlocalised,
which is Crepis fcetida, a plant not since recorded for the county.
Dr. Lightfoot's (circa 1790) locality in Oxfordshire for the same
plant is also lacking recent confirmation.—G. C. Druce.
NOTICES OF BOOKS.
Scientific Papers of Asa Gray. Selected by Charles Sprague
SAiiGENT. Vol. II.—Reviews of Works on Botany and related
subjects, 1831-1887, pp. viii. 397. Vol. II.—Essays ; Biographical
Sketches, 1811-188G, pp. 503. Loudon : Macmillau.
Price £1. Is.
In these two handsome volumes we have an acceptable selection
from the scattered writings of the great American botanist who was
taken from us little more than two years since, and a fitting
memorial of their illustrious author. These writings, extending
over more than half a century, are grouped by Prof. Sargent, who
has fittingly undertaken the editorship of these selections, into four
divisions :—Contributions to systematic botany ; works of a purely
educational character ; critical reviews and biographies ; and the
series of papers "which owe their existence to the discussions
which followed the publications of Mr. IJarwiu's ' Origin of
Species.'" The first two are not republished, their essence
having been already incorporated in later works, and the last
group were reissued by their author in the interesting and
insulliciently known work entitled ' Darwiiiiana.' The present
volumes are therefore devoted to the third group of the four
indicated above.
Prof. Sargent tells us tliat the selection of tlie articles for republication
has been "an embarrassing and dillicult task," and we
can well believe it. Few men have written so long and so well as