192 NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
extreme viscidity has suggested its employment in diarrhoea, and there 
is no doubt that if taken in sufficient quantity it would actually glue 
up the viscera. The Cuma-acu is a much larger tree, but of similar 
habit, and the milk is of a thicker consistence: it is said to flower to- 
wards the end of the year. "The fruits of these two trees are said to 
be the most agreeable of any on the Rio Negro, and from their resem- 
blance to the fruit of Pyrus Sorbus, have been called * Sorvas? by the 
Portuguese settlers. ; 
It is perhaps among twining plants, or Sipós, that the greatest bota- 
nical novelties remain to be found ; they are in many cases so difficult 
to collect, that I have no doubt a great many have been passed over by 
travellers. I am now paying particular attention to them, and my 
Barra collection includes twiners of the Orders Leguminose, Connaracee, 
Polygalee, Malpighiacee, Sapindacee, Convolvulacee, Hippocrateacee, 
Bignoniacee, Apocynee, Asclepiadee, Menispermee, and some others. 
(To be continued.) 
NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Harvey, Dr. WILLIAM HENRY: NEREIS DBOoREALI-AMERICANA ; 07, 
Contributions towards a History of the Marine Alga. of the Atlantic 
and Pacific Coasts of North America. Part II. RuoposPERME#. 
Washington, 1853. Large 4to, many coloured plates. 
We congratulate our botanical friends on the appearances of this the 
Second Part (almost a volume in itself) of the Marine Algæ of North 
America: and it is a matter of congratulation too that this is not the 
concluding portion of this most important work; but that another por- 
tion or section, including the Chlorospermee, or Green Algz, will be 
put in hand on the return of the author from a voyage of great interest 
which he is about to undertake in search of the Algz of the southern 
hemisphere. We trust to give a further notice of the present part of the 
Nereis, from the pen of a friend more competent to do justice to the 
work and to its author than the Editor of this Journal can be supposed 
tobe. At present we shall only say that the descriptions are fully equal 
to, and the figures even superior to, those of the First Part. 
