NOTICES OF BOOKS. 379 



Atlantidis, si fabula non ficta, florae vetus erat hospes." Mr. Lowe 

 appears not to have seen the seeds of this very rare tree; they are 

 large, bony, and of a dark brown colour, enveloped in resinous juice, 

 and disposed in four series in the coriaceous capsule, which is normally 

 two-valved. The embryo is imbedded in copious, hard albumen. He 

 describes the capsule from Masson's original plants in the Banksian 

 Herbarium, as "curiously vermiculato-verruculate or sinuato-rugulose ;" 

 perhaps this sculpturing was effected by insects, for we have seen no- 

 thing like it on the fresh fruit. The seeds are ripe about March, when 

 the tree is putting out another year's flowers. An infusion of the 

 pounded seeds, it may be noted, is used by the peasantry as a " re- 

 medio/' — J". Y. J. 



% 



The London Catalogue of British Plants. Published under the direc- 

 tion of the Botanical Society of London ; adapted for marking Deside- 

 rata in Exchanges of Specimens, etc. Fifth Edition. London: W. 



Pamplin. 1857. 



The late " London Botanical Society " has done great service to 

 British Botany, by the close attention paid by its members, and espe- 

 cially by Messrs. H. C. Watson and Syme, to the correct nomenclature 

 of the genera and species, and by its extensive distribution of species 

 with authentic names. To explain the appearance of a new edition 

 (the fifth) of their Catalogue "during the state of abeyance of the 

 Botanical Society, pending arrangements for its active resuscitation/' 

 the Editor observes that, the copyright having been in the meantime 

 "vested in the editors of the fourth edition, namely Messrs. H. C. 

 Watson and J. T. Syme," they have deemed it proper to meet the call 

 for another edition. However therefore science may be a loser by the 

 temporary dissolution of the Society, the public loses nothing of the 



services of the able editors. 



A printed page on the wrapper explains the alterations that have 

 been made in this edition. In order to keep the Catalogue within the 

 compass of a folded sheet, few varieties have been retained in the list, 

 except those distinguished by characters sufficiently marked to have 

 led some botanists to retain them as true species. The nomenclature 

 in the genera Salix, Rubus, Rosa, Chara, Arctium, and Ranunculus 

 (partly), has been adapted to that of Babington's ' Manual of Botany/ 

 fourth edition, "for the sake of uniformity in labelling specimens 



