378 NOTICES OP BOOKS. 



I 



first publicly announced his intention of issuing a Prodroinus, botanists 

 began to despair of seeing anything but fragmentary papers from his 

 pen ; and now, as he presents us with the first portion of his work, we 

 regret to find him speaking of a suspension of his labours being en- 

 forced by the state of his health. 



This portion of the Work embraces the Subclass Thalamiflorce, with 

 21 Orders, 63 genera, and 131 species, and forms about one-sixth of 

 the whole, if restricted to the Phaenogamous Flora. Only one large 

 Order, the Cruciferee, falls into this Subclass ; the other large Orders, 

 the Leguminosa 9 Composite, Labiates, Scrophularinete, and Umbelliferce., 

 remain undealt with. Of the 131 species here described, about 30 are 

 mere escapes from cultivation, aud form, strictly speaking, no part of 

 the Flora of Madeira. Amongst them are the Vine, the Orange-tree, 

 Lemon-tree, and Citron-tree, with various Pelargonia and Oxalises. 

 Of the remaining * species, though truly indigenous, as far as can now 

 be ascertained, the majority are European, but some seventeen belong 

 to the Macronesian Flora, as Mr. Webb styled the flora of the islands 

 of the northern Atlantic, and of these nine are peculiar to Madeira. 

 In this last category we find Berberis Maderensis, Lowe, Matthiola 

 Maderensis, Lowe, Gheiranthus tenuifolius, L'Her., G Arbnscula, Lowe, 

 Sinapidendron frutescens, Lowe, S. angustifolium, Lowe, 8. rupestre, 

 Lowe, Crambe fruticosa, L. fil., and Viola paradoxa, Lowe. It would 

 have been well, we think, in the case of plants which are natives of 

 more than one of the North Atlantic groups, including the Madeiras, 

 to have indicated the fact distinctly under each ; thus, whilst only a 

 single one of those here described (viz. Hypericum grandifolium, Chois.), 

 appears to have been met with at all the three groups of the Madeiras, 

 Azores, and Canaries ; and only two, viz. Ranunculus grandifolius, 

 Lowe, and Cerastium vagaus, Lowe (with which latter we take (7. Azo- 

 ricum, Hochst., to be identical), are common to the Azores and Madeira, 

 not being found elsewhere; there are five, viz. Gheiranthus mutabilis, 

 L'Her., Hypericum jloribundum, Ait., //. glandidosum, Ait., Geranium 

 auemouifolium, L'Her., and Pittosporum coriaceum. Ait., which are 

 common to the Canaries and Madeira, and confined to them. As to 

 the last-mentioned tree, although it has not been met with of late, yet 

 as Mr. Webb says distinctly that he once discovered a specimen of it, 

 we are disposed to think he could hardly be mistaken. He adds, "Oc- 

 currit unicum hoc generis specimen in Teneriffaet Madera, unde priscas 



