200 COMMENTARY ON THE PLANTS IN 
Victoria Peak and woods at East Point, near the Buddhist temple, 
but rare. It is a shrub coming perhaps as near to Z. consimilis of Nees 
as to the normal Cingalese form of the species, but all are probably . 
mere varieties of one widely-spread species. 
12. Cassytha filiformis, Linn. 
As common in the Island as in East India and other countries. 
(To be continued.) 
Versuch eines Commentars über die Pflanzen in den Werken von Marc- 
grav und Piso, etc. Attempt at a Commentary on the Plants in the 
works of Marcgrav and Piso on Brazil; with some further details con- 
cerning the Flora of that Kingdom. By Dr. C. Fr. Pu. von Martius. 
1. Cryptogames. Munich, 1853, 4to. (From Memoirs of the Royal 
Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Cl. TI. vol. vii. sect. 1.) Translated 
from the German by Dr. Warurcn, V.P. Royal and Linn. Soc. 
(Continued from p. 169.) 
It is certainly evident from this edition and from the first, that Piso, 
as physician, had enjoyed more opportunity to deal with plants, than 
Maregrav. The traditional information on simplicia, such as the phy- 
sieians of those days possessed, no doübt enabled Piso to describe the 
appearance and particular parts of a plant with much readiness; and 
the useful, especially the medicinal plants, aecordingly attracted his 
particular notice. Marcgrav, on the other hand, took great interest 
also in other plants, which appeared to him to differ from European 
forms; speaking of them with the candour of a self-taught man, little 
acquainted with the technical terms of the school of those days, and 
evidently somewhat embarrassed in his efforts: a circumstance which 
certainly places much difficulty in the way of clearly making out what 
particular subject he had before him. Considering therefore the state 
of the science when our authors flourished, we must not reproach them 
with the want of systematic and clear descriptions. Even in the writ- 
ings of the immediately preceding period, of P. A. Matthiolus (born 
1500, d. 1577), Conrad Gesner (born 1516, d. 1565), Joachim Came- 
rarius (born 1534, d. 1598), Clusius (born 1526, d. 1609), Lobel (born 
1538, d. 1616), and others, we meet with a want of a terminology 
