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who professed himself, we believe, a personal friend of Mr. Webb. As long as the old state of things continued in the peninsula all went on well; but when Italy began once more to agitate for unity and nationality, the Duke of Tuscany had to fly from the vengeance of the people. In the hurry he forgot to leave behind the funds entrusted to his honour by the illustrious Webb, and though he has had several reminders, we understand that not a penny has as yet been restored. Science, especially botanical science, has constantly to struggle with poverty; and but few of the good things of this life are reserved for her. This was felt to its full extent by men like Smithson and Webb, both of whom entrusted their wealth to foreigners, on condition that it should be used for the advancement of science, free from the deadly influence of professional jobbery. It is vexatious when the good intentions of such noble-minded men are frustrated. There is much to be said about the Smithsonian fund, but the most serious charge does probably not amount to more than errors of judgment committed by its administration. But no language can be too severe in speaking of the way in which the Duke of Tuscany has behaved about the trust confided in him, and we hope that when peaceful times have once more set in, the Italian Government will do all in its power to recover the funds left for keeping up Webb's Library and Herbarium. We felt it due to the illustrious botanist whose work is placed at the head of our article, to make this statement, because we know to what shifts he and his colleagues are put with Webb's fund suddenly cut off, and hardly any money from the Italian Government to buy the most necessary new publications. It is impossible for him to be quite familiar with what is going on in the botanical world, and many a man with less enthusiasm for science would long ere this have folded his arms and excused his absolute abstention from work till better times by the obstacles before him. Knowing all this, we have no wish to dwell upon his shortcomings any more than is necessary for the due understanding of his labours.

We do not hold Gossypium to be so difficult a genus as it is generally represented to be. We in northern Europe can do little towards working it up, but a botanist of average ability residing in some tropical or semitropical country could easily put it to rights. All he requires is to procure the seeds of the different species for growing in his garden. At present, when there is direct steam communication between all tropical and semitropical countries, this can be speedily

effected; and as soon as the various kinds flower and fruit he must figure and describe them carefully, and forward a coloured figure and description, accompanied by well-dried and complete specimens to some head-quarters of botany. Until this preliminary labour is accomplished, nothing definite can be settled about the synonymy, because our herbarium specimens are generally ill preserved-Cotton being a difficult plant to dry-and few of them have fruit and flower together. With good materials, such as those we have insisted upon, the synonymy will not present any serious difficulties.

We do not think there are more than about ten known species of Gossypium, all of which can be sufficiently well characterized to be readily distinguished. Parlatore describes and figures seven (besides the doubtful species); but he has overlooked G. anomalum (microcarpum), G. drynarioides, the finest flowering of all Cottons, and several other well-marked types contained in herbaria. He adopts all the old Linnæan species (viz. G. herbaceum, arboreum, hirsutum, and religiosum), and interprets them correctly, with the exception of G. religiosum. That species he takes to be what in our markets and colonies is called " Kidney Cotton;" easily distinguished from all other species by the seeds closely adhering to each other, instead of being free. Now, most authors regard the Kidney Cotton as G. Peruvianum, and restrict the name of G. religiosum of Linnæus, to a short-stapled tawny cotton, with loose seeds, of which the yellow dresses of the Buddhist priests are made, and which, from that connection, obtained the name of "religiosum." Parlatore gives to this religiosum, of Linnæus, the name "G. Taitense," and describes it from dried specimens. A full account of the plant, taken from Solander's manuscript Flora of Tahiti, has been published in Seemann's 'Flora Vitiensis.' From Solander we learn that this is one of the Cottons, the flowers of which undergo a marked change in colour between the time they open and fade, being first white then pink, a peculiarity it shares with G. arboreum. An allied species is G. tomentosum, Nutt. mss., published in 1865 in his 'Flora Vitiensis,' and now renamed, in 1866, G. Sandvicense, by Parlatore. It is covered with a short canescent tomentum, has yellow flowers, and also produces tawny cotton.

That Parlatore, after a conscientious study of all the Gossypiums available to him, should have fixed upon the Kidney Cotton as the G. religiosum of Linnæus, when most botanists regard one of the Nankin Cottons as religiosum true, may appear less strange when we state that

there is no authentic specimen of G. religiosum in Linnæus's herba''ium, and that Linnæus's description is unsatisfactory. But there is sufficient evidence to show that Linnæus did not at all events give the name of religiosum to the Kidney Cotton.

We are thankful for what has been done, but hope that Professor Parlatore will not let this subject drop before he has fairly worked it out. He must dispose of all the doubtful species he has placed at the end of his book before he can regard his labours as terminated, and must furnish us with a short diagnosis of each species, besides the longer descriptions he has given.

BOTANICAL NEWS.

Dr. Seemann returned to England on the 12th ult., from his journey through Nicaragua and the Isthmus of Panama, and resumes, this month, the editorship of the Journal of Botany.' In the gold district of Chontales he found a number of new Palms and other fine-foliage plants, which have been placed under the care of Mr. Bull, of Chelsea. During his stay at Panama, he was able to ascend the Bayano river and familiarize himself with its vegetation, the Americans having obligingly lent him a steamer for that purpose.

In consequence of the disturbed state of the Continent, the meeting of German naturalists and physicians which was to be held at Frankfort in September next will not take place.

The Professorship of Botany at the School of Physic, Trinity College, Dublin University, is now vacant; and on Saturday, December 22, 1866, the Provost and Senior Fellows will proceed to elect a Professor of Botany. The emoluments consist of a sum of £200 paid annually by the college; of threeguinea fees paid by each person attending the Professor's three-month Clinical Lectures in Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital; and of certain other payments, to be regulated from time to time by the Provost and Senior Fellows of Trinity College. The professorship is open to Protestants of all nations, provided they shall have taken medical degrees, or shall have obtained a licence to practise from the College of Physicians, in consequence of a testimonium under the seal of Trinity College, Dublin. All persons intending to offer themselves as candidates should send in their names, the places of their education, the university at which they have taken their medical degrees, and the places at which they have practised, on or before December 14. For further particulars, candidates will have to apply to the Rev. S. Haughton, Medical Registrar of Trinity College. By the restrictions imposed, most of our best botanists are excluded from the candidature, and we therefore trust that the person chosen may be selected entirely for his merits.

We have received a copy, too late to be noticed this month, of the longexpected work of Mr. Benjamin Clarke, "New Arrangement of Phanerogamous Plants, with Especial Reference to Relative Position, including their relations

with the Cryptogamous." Only two hundred and fifty copies having been printed, botanists are advised to apply at once to Messrs. Williams and Norgate, 14, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C., or Robert Hardwicke, 192, Piccadilly. The price is £1.

Prof. Unger, in a paper communicated to the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Vienna, shows that Egyptian bricks contain a variety of evidence preserved, as it seems, in an imperishable form. He has examined a brick from the pyramid of Dashour, which dates from between 3400 and 3300 B.C., and found imbedded among the Nile mud or slime, chopped straw, and sand, of which it is composed, remains of vegetable and animal forms, and of the manufacturing arts, entirely unchanged. So perfectly, indeed, have they been preserved in the compact substance of the brick, that he experienced but little or no difficulty in identifying them. By this discovery Prof. Unger makes us acquainted with wild and cultivated plants which were growing in the pyramid-building days; with freshwater shells, fishes, remains of insects, and so forth, and a swarm of organic bodies, which, for the most part, are represented without alteration in Egypt at the present time. Besides two sorts of grain—wheat and barley--he found Teff (Eragrostis Abyssinica), the Field-pea (Pisum arvense), the common Flax (Linum usitatissimum),—the latter having, in all probability, been cultivated as an article of food, as well as for spinning. The weeds are of the familiar kinds : wild Radish (Raphanus Raphanistrum), Corn Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum segetum), Wartwort (Euphorbia helioscopia), Nettle-leaved Goosefoot (Chenopodium murale), bearded Hare's-ear (Bupleurum aristatum), and the common Vetch (Vicia sativa). The relics of manufacturing art consist of fragments of burnt tiles, of pottery, and a small piece of twine, spun of flax and sheep's wool, significant of the advance which civilization had made more than five thousand years ago. The presence of the chopped straw confirms the account of brickmaking as given in Exodus and by Herodotus.

The last issue of Bennett's 'Photographic Portraits of Men of Eminence' contains portraits of Mr. Charles Darwin and Dr. Berthold Seemann, accompanied by biographical sketches.

Mr. W. Cutter, of 52, Hunter Street, W.C., sends us the following melancholy news:-At p. 32 of the first volume of this Journal, there is a notice of the departure, for Old Calabar and the Cameroons, of W. Grant Milne, formerly botanist of H.M.S. Herald, Captain Denham, in the Australian seas, in which capacity he discovered many new plants, particularly in the Viti and New Hebrides groups. His friends will now learn, with the deepest sorrow, that I have just been informed by a respected missionary, that Mr. Milne has succumbed to the pernicious influence of the African climate in Creek Town, on the 3rd of May last. Having been his London agent for more than three years, I have had perhaps a better opportunity than many others to judge of the result of his labours, and I wish to bear my humble testimony to his indefatigable zeal in collecting and forwarding specimens. Besides botanical collections, he sent, from time to time, insects, shells, reptiles, etc., many of which have proved new to science, and claims for his name a respectful consideration as one of the explorers of tropical Africa."

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