320 NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
to record the high estimation we entertain of its invaluable contents. 
. To the student of the vegetation of the north temperate zone, whether 
of Europe, Asia, or America, the work is indispensable, on account of 
its immense scope, completeness, the efficient manner in which the ma- 
terials are brought together, their localities grouped and detailed, and 
the complete synonymy, so far as all Russian works, and those bearing 
more particularly on the Russian Flora, are concerned, and the critical 
details, wherever such appear. 
The number of species is often greatly over-estimated, and in some 
genera the diagnostic characters are insufficient for the identification 
of the plants, but for neither of these defects was Professor Ledebour 
wholly to blame; a considerable number of species are introduced upon 
the authority of others, sometimes only by means of the characters 
communicated to him by correspondence, and the majority of these are 
as many names for plants already better described in the body of the 
work. MM. Karelin and Kireloff’s species again are introduced, often 
without examination, and these are not uncommonly either merely 
slightly altered forms of northern plants which penetrate into the qe 
rious desert country of Soongaria, or are Himalayan plants, which 
seem fated to be described as new over and over again, by whoever 
investigates them, whether in India or elsewhere. 
Some Notes upon the Cryptogamic portion of the plants collected in Por- 
tugal (1842-50) dy Dr. F. Wenwitscu. The Fungi by the Rev. 
M. J. Berkeley, M.A., F.L.S. 
Under this modest title we have results of an examination of upwards 
of seventy species of Portuguese Fungi, from the pen of the most able 
and accomplished mycologist of his day. It includes seven new spe- 
cies, and is printed for the use of the subscribers by Mr. Pamplin. As 
with everything that proceeds from that author, these notes are the 
_ fruits of a really careful study of his subject. 
The plants form part of the collections noticed as for sale in the 
third volume of this work, p. 190. 
