127 
NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Specimens of the FLORA of SOUTH AFRICA. By a Lady. Atlas folio. 
London. 1850. 
Tuts is truly an ouvrage de luxe; and since “it does not profess to be 
of a strictly scientific character,” it would, perhaps, beautiful as it is, 
have passed unnoticed in our Botanical Journal, but that it has come 
forth under the auspices of Dr. Wallich, and the descriptive part with 
the aid of Dr. Harvey. Asa specimen of art, we may observe that 
the subjects are the most choice that a South African vegetation (cele- 
brated for its variety and charms) can exhibit. The drawings are all 
made on the spot by a lady* of high talent and accomplishment in the 
art of drawing and colouring ; the plates are executed by the eminent 
lithographer, Mr. P. Gauci ; the paper is made expressly for the work ; 
and nothing can well exceed the whole style and finish of the publi- 
cation. 
The title-page is a picture in itself, —a wreath, tastefully enclosing 
the engraved title, of the most charming kinds of Amaryllidaceous, 
Trideous, and Orchideous plants, Ovalis, &c.,—the colours mingled with 
the best possible effect. The volume is dedicated, and justly so, to 
the excellent Wallich, ** under whose flattering encouragement and 
scientific guidance this collection of plants was delineated ;” and, in 
the brief preface, due acknowledgments are made both to Dr. Wallich 
and to Dr. Harvey, and an assurance given that “it will be a source 
of much gratification to the authoress, if she is enabled to impart, in 
some degree, to others, the pleasure she has derived from the study of 
the beautiful flowers of Southern Africa.” 
The first Plate is devoted to the graceful Sparaxis pendula ; and this 
affords opportunity for Dr. Harvey to offer remarks on the Zridez, 
generally, of the Cape Colony,—one of the most characteristic features 
of the vegetation of Southern Africa. The family, we are told, “has 
its maximum at the Cape of Good Hope; and in the months of the 
spring and early summer of the southern hemisphere—namely, from 
* "The name is modestly withheld throughout the whole of the work; but on the 
authority of the * cce Magazine,' under Roupellia grata (vol. Ixxiv. tab. — 
we are enabled to say that these admirable drawings are the work of the ave brs 
Thomas Boone Roupell, Esq., a gentleman now high in the Civil Service of the 
India Company, on the Madras Establishment. 
