60 NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



of the close coanection between Tremandrem and Lasio^etale^Sj and tbe 

 development of these views forms the object of the present pamphlet of 

 about one hundred and twenty pages. The history and generic cha- 

 racters of the three Tremandreous genera Tetratheca, Platytheca and Tre- 

 mandra is given in great detail, the various affinities indicated by dif- 

 ferent botanists are discussed, and an elaborate comparison is instituted 

 between the Tremandre<B and Lmiopetalecs ^ in each of their different 

 organs, vegetative as well as reproductive, in their anatomical struc- 

 ture, and the whole subject is argued in a satisfactory, though perhaps 

 rather diffuse manner. 



Etudes Organiques sur les Cuscutes ; jpar M. Charles Desmoulins, Pre- 

 sident de la Societe Linneenne de Bordeaux, etc. 



This is an historical and systematic monograph of the European 

 species of the Linnean Genus Cuscuta. The characters of each are 

 given in detail in seventeen folded tables, and supported by elaborate 

 arguments, authorities, and observations, contained in seventy-seven 

 pages of text, as reprinted from the Eeports of the 19th Session (at 

 Toulouse) of the French Scientific Congress. M. Desmoulins is a 

 carefiU observer, well known for several critical works on the Flora of 

 the south-western provinces of France, and great reliance must be 



■ 



placed on his facts and observations. We should not perhaps be dis- 

 posed to agree with him, and some other modem botanists, in the ex- 

 pediency of breaking up into small genera so very natural a group as 

 the Linnean Cmcuta; nor perhaps can the merits of these genera, even 

 as sectional groups, be fully ascertained until they are tested by appli- 

 cation to a larger proportion of the numerous exotic species now known ; 

 but so far as the European species are concerned, they appear to be 

 well characterized, and as natural as the circumstances of the case will 

 admit. The fifteen species examined and adopted by M. Desmoulins, 

 are Cuscuta EiirojpcEa^ epithymmn^ trifolii^ planijlora^ Koiachyi, Godronii, 

 episoncMitm, and calydna; Epilinella ctiscutoides {Cuscuta epilinum); 



Monogynella Vahllana (Cuscuta 'inonogpid) ; Cassutha {Efigelmannia^ 

 Pfeiff.) suaveolens^ Americana^ cTirysocoma and AraUca^ and Succuta alba ; 

 besides three doubtful species not seen by the author, viz. C, approxi- 

 mata^ Babingt., C. microcephala, Welw., and C. Fici{e, F. Schultz. It 



