256 NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Distribution. 4. Summary of Labours of Indian Botanists. 5. Sketch 
of the Meteorology of India, and 6. Sketch of the Physical Features and 
Vegetation of the Provinces of India.— So full of valuable matter 1s 
this Introduction, that its authors have, with great judgment and no 
small labour, given an excellent Index to it. The remaining 285 pages 
of the volume is devoted, in closely printed type, to the Flora; the 
generic and specific characters and full descriptions (when needful) 
in Latin; with observations, etc., in English, accompanied by a com- 
plete Index of Genera, Species, and Synonyms. The whole is executed 
with a degree of care and accuracy that will justify its being ranked 
with the most valuable botanical publications of this or any other day. 
Some may think that there is too great a disposition to reduce the 
. number of species previously described: but if such persons were to come 
with an altogether unbiassed mind to a labour of this kind, and have 
access to the rich and varied materials which have fallen to the lot of 
our authors, and an equal amount of authentic specimens, they would 
probably arrive at nearly the same conclusions. 
The map accompanying this Flora is a novel and valuable feature; 
it professes to divide the whole area under consideration into such pro- 
vinces as shall, in general terms, be a sufficient indication of the geogra- 
phical habitats of the plants described; and it designates these by 
names already familiar to geographers, and which should be also to 
naturalists. In this the authors have followed the excellent example 
of Ledebour’s ‘ Flora Rossica, and we most sincerely hope that bota- 
. nists will, in future, whenever they may have occasion to designate the 
locality of an Indian plant, adopt the divisions here proposed. : 
In the preface the authors announce their intention of continuing the 
work; but it seems very doubtful whether it is possible for them to 
enter with so much care into the details of the structure and affinities 
_ of the genera and species consistently with making due progress in the 
_ descriptive portion. Materials accumulate much faster than they can 
_ be fully studied with a view to their complete elucidation in a structural, 
: systematic, and physiological point of view; and it might be better that 
Drs. Hooker and Thomson should content themselves with the proof 
the first volume affords of their ability to treat these difficult subjects, 
and conduct the remainder on a less comprehensive plan; the fact being, 
that in the present deplorable state of Indian botany we want a careful 
Prodromus of the whole Flora, far more than a learned. study of a few 
Natural Orders. 
