NOTICES OF BOOKS. 155 
king sulphur surrounded the gulf. On the whole, this spot, which. is 
most interesting to the geologist and very striking to every observer, 
possesses few attractions for the botanist, as no plants grow near the 
edge of the voleano. On our way there and back, we collected the 
more keenly, but found little that was peculiar to Tanna. An Eugenia, 
a Banyan, and a kind of Fig which produces a small fruit, the skin of 
which blisters the lips, though the natives are fond of it, with a Bar- - 
ringtonia, an Hibiscus, and a Hoya in bloom, were the principal flower- 
ing plants, together with most of the Ferns which I had already found 
on the Fiji Islands. 
We are now bound for the Solomon Islands, in search of Mr. Boyd, 
having received accounts which lead us to hope that he may be alive 
there: I wish it might be true; at all events, I trust to make good 
collections in this new locality. We shall not return to Sydney before 
February, having laid in a store of provisions at Tanna. Tt will be a 
ad great satisfaction to me to hear that my last collections of living and 
E dried plants reached you in good order. 
NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
WiLsoN, WILLIAM : BRYOLOGIA BRITANNICA; containing the MossEs — 
of Great Britain and InELAND, systematically arranged and de- 
scribed according to the Method of Bruch and Schimper, with illus- 
trative plates. 8vo. London. 1855. ^ ; 
The second edition of the * Muscologia Britannica’ of Messrs. Hooker - 
and Taylor has for many years been out of print. One of the authors. 
has long been removed from the scene of his earthly labours, and the 
survivor, if his official duties in a great national establishment were not 
alone sufficient to prevent him from undertaking the task of a new 
edition, might well plead advancing years and its consequences, as his 
excuse for declining the responsibility of a third edition. Happily for 
. him and happily for science, Mr. Wilson, so well known for the sm 
racy of his researches in this department of Botany, was ready and 
willing to take the duty upon himself. He was already considerably 
advanced in a ‘ Synopsis of British Mosses ; and when a more eibi 
