52 NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
they cannot overpass. The theories of advancing development, or 
transfusion of species, so frequently started in modern times, re- 
ceive no confirmation in the case of the Protococcus; nor in any 
other instance, where the evidence has been carefully investigated.” 
The first part is devoted to the group of Rhodomelea, (so called 
from podeos, red, pedas, black, from the almost universal fact of the 
plants changing, in drying, from red to dark brown, or even black,) 
and an interesting account is given of their geographical distribu- 
tion. It should be observed that the work is not a selection of 
certain species, but an arranged system of all that is known of 
Australian 4/77, accompanied by figures of the new and rare ones, 
especially of those most remakable for beauty of form or colour. 
We cannot conclude our brief notice of this work without re- 
marking that the Phycologia Britannica has now extended to 
twenty-five numbers, and reflects, as we foretold it would do, the 
highest credit on the author. 
Dn. Hooker’s FronA AwrancrICA ; or the Botany of the Antarctic 
Regions, explored by H.M. Discovery Ships, Erebus and Terror, 
in 1839-1843, under the command of Captain Sir James Clark 
Ross, R.N. London: Reeve, Benham, and Reeve. 1847. 
This important work is brought to a close in two quarto volumes, 
with one hundred and ninety-eight plates, and the requisite accom- 
panying descriptive matter. The other portions of the botany of 
this voyage, namely the Flora of Van Diemen’s Land, and the Flora 
of New Zealand, for which considerable preparations are made, will 
be delayed till the return of the author from his present mission to 
Northern India, and to Borneo. Many of the new species from — 
those countries have recently been published in the late numbers 
of the present Journal; and there is every reason to believe that - 
numerous additions will soon be made to what is alreadyknown of the _ 
.. vegetation of those important islands, by the continuous exertions | 
.. ef Ronald Gunn, Esq. in Tasmania, and of the Rev. W. Colenso _ 
