NOTICES OF BOOKS. 215 
‘ tions. I have never in the whole course of my wanderings come across 
one of the species of Smilax which affords Sarsaparilla of commerce, 
though I have gathered numerous species of that genus. But in 1852 
I saw plants of a Smilax near Sio Gabriel (and I sent specimens of the 
leaves and fruit to Kew), which had been brought from the Canaburis, 
and from which I saw the roots extracted and dried for sale. 
Those who go to collect Sarsaparilla tell me they are guided by three 
characters :— : 
l. Many stems from a root. 
2. Prickles of stem closely set. > 
3. Leaves thin (not coriaceous), 
Iam assured that the species of Smilax possessing these characters 
united have also numerous long roots, radiating horizontally from the 
crown; while the single-stemmed species have only a solitary tap-root. 
l am aware that the Jamaica Sarsaparilla is said to command a 
better price in the market than that of Pará, but I thought it had been 
planted in that island. Of the Sarsaparilla collected in the upper tri- 
butaries of the Orinoco, of the Rio Negro, the greater portion-goes to 
the Para market, where it fetches a better price than at Angostura. I 
am not aware that it enters into the commerce of any other port in 
Venezuela except Angostura; and it is curious if the same Sarsaparilla 
coming to England by way of Jamaica sells for double the price that it 
fetches when sent by way of Para. Just now there is no demand 
whatever for Sarsaparilla in the Pará market, and, like every other draw- - 
back to commerce, it is attributed to the war with Russia; with what | 
reason, you will know better than I. 
NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
CARL MÖLLER: Recensio Generis Graminearum Zoysta, in Mohl and 
Schlechtendal’s ‘Botanische Zeitung,’ 1855, No. 16. 
A Nuremberg hortieulturist, improving upon Pansner's Gooseberr 
has published a monograph of Apples, which he divides into 15 genera 
and 1263 species, each with its formal Latin generic and specific name - 
and so-called diagnosis. Although nothing can be so absurd as this 
exaggerated attempt to classify the unclassifiable, M quete peog. 
