42 
there made are so opposed to the facts that it is difficult to 
imagine how any one could have made them by accident. Mr. 
Semler states that ‘no steps have yet been taken to cultivate the 
Guarana,” whereas there is no considerable amount of Guarana 
obtained except from cultivated plants. The fruits are not 
“gathered in October and November,” but in January. So far 
from being sold in the Santarem market at ‘gd per tb.,” it is diffi- 
cult at most times to obtain Guarana at 75c. and $1, although 
the price is exceedingly variable. Guarana is not collected on 
the Rio Negro for market, or at least not to any extent. 
Concerning Coca it is stated that the Bolivian Government 
derives an annual revenue of £40,000 from the “lease of wild 
coca shrubs.” Now, the wild coca shrub is quite a curiosity in 
Bolivia, so rarely is it met with, and the government owns no 
shrubs, either wild or cultivated; nor does its income from the 
export duty on coca reach anywhere near such a figure as that 
named. The author’s anxiety to have his work become the 
“standard” is hardly likely to be realized if the whole of it is on 
a par with this extract. There is a class of writers who sail along 
the coasts of foreign countries and pick up stray information 
concerning the interior,and who do much more harm than good. 
Reliable information, especially concerning South America, can 
only be obtained by actually visiting the locality, and then 
depending on one’s eyes, religiously excluding the statements of 
the natives, for “the truth dwelleth not in them.”—(H. H. R.) 
Botany of the Afghan Delimitation Commission. (Nature, 
XXXV., pp. 173-174.) This is a very interesting, though too brief, 
account, by W. B. Hemsley, of the collections made by Dr. 
Aitchison of the vegetable products of the Perso-Afghan region, 
collections of great economic as well as scientific importance, as 
he paid special attention to the drug- producing plants and settled 
many doubtful questions. The collections contain about 100 
new species, and were prepared and packed with great care. 
The main collection consists of about 800 species and 10,000 
specimens, and yet does not include any plants from an altitude 
of more than 5,000 feet. The plants have not yet been fully 
worked out, but a full and illustrated report on the whole collec- 
