338 Floristik und Systematik der Phanerogamen. 



vorausgeschickten allgemeinen Theil behandelt Verf. folgende Punkte: 

 systematischer Werth des morphologischen Charakters ; Constanz der 

 Charactere ; Verwandtschaftskreise; Arten und Rassen; Variabilität und 

 Mutabilität. In Bezug auf letztere hält Verf. dafür, dass einzelne Varietäten 

 durch Variation, andere durch Mutation entstanden seien. — Dem Werk 

 ist eine synoptische Bestimmungstabelle, sowie ein Register beigegeben. 



Vogler (St. Gallen). 



CAMUS, E. G., Note sur la chaine des Aravis. (Revue 



Savoisienne. Annecy 1902. Fascic. 4. p. 215 — 243. Avec 



2 planches et une carte.) 



L'auteur indique les principales herborisations qu'on peut faire en 

 sejournant ä La Cluzaz dans la Chaine des Aravis (sous-district 

 des Alpes d' Annecy de john Briquet), et donne une liste syste- 

 matique des plantes vasculaires signalees dans cette chaine et les 

 montagnes voisines. Cette liste qui comprend environ 470 especes a 

 ete dressee d'apres les recherches de l'auteur et les travaux anterieurs 

 de Bouvier, Kieffer, Beauverd et Saint-Lager. On y remarque 

 de nombreux hybrides: X Drosera obovata M. et K. au Col du 

 Merdassier, X Sorbus hybrida L. pres de la Port e - des - A ra v is, 

 X <?• aricides Michalet au'Mont-Mery, X Cirsium rigens Wallr. et 

 quelques formes douteuses figurees et decrites par l'auteur: Cirsium 

 Erysithales ? X rivulare et C. Clusianum Camus = C. Erysithales ? X 

 acauie etc. J. Offner. 



COCKAYNE, L., A Short Account of the Plant-covering 



of Chatham Island. (Transactions of the New Zealand 



Institute. XXXIV. p. 243—325. T. 16—19.) 



This is a very valuable contribution to the botany of the outlying 

 islands of the New Zealand region, especially in view of the certain 

 early extinction of much of the original Vegetation. Mr. Cockayne 

 spent six weeks on the main island in the beginning of the year 1901. 

 The Chatham Islands are about 450 miles south-east from the nearest 

 point of New Zealand, between 43° 30' and 44° 30' south latitude and 

 175" 40' and 177" 15' west longitude. The main island is about thirty 

 miles in length, with an area of 222 490 acres. Pitt Island, the next 

 in size, is between eight and nine miles long and has an area of about 

 15 000 acres. Mangere and South-east Island are each about a 

 mile and a half in length; the rest are mere rocks. 



Mr. Cockayne's essay deals exclusively with Chatham Island 

 itself, which is generally low, though undulating, and nowhere rises to 

 quite a thousand feet. About one-third of the island is lagoon and lake, 

 and bogs of considerable size are frequent, both on the high and the 

 low ground. The soil consists iargely of peat, which, it is estimated, is 

 as much as fifty feet deep in places. It burns freely when dry, and 

 once set on fire it burns for years. Hollows upwards of thirty feet deep, 

 caused by fire, had been observed by previous travellers, and 

 Mr. Cockayne says: „In the peaty piain, on the north-west peninsula, 

 I saw a hollow caused by the peat having been burned, which even 

 then was smouldering in places. This hollow was about 10 feet in depth, 

 and its area about two acres. The burning must have taken place 

 many years ago, for the bottom of the hole was a dense mass of 

 Vegetation." It is assumed that the islands emerged from the ocean 

 during some portion of the tertiary period. The annual rainfall is only 

 about thirty inches, but an average of six years gives 190 days on 

 which rain feil. The mean annual temperature is 51° 4 Fahr. The 

 maximum and minimum of December, the hottest month, are 70' and 

 38° and of August, the coldest month, 58° and 30°; but frosts are rare. 



Mr. Cockayne describes successively , and, I may add, most 

 successfully, the various „plant-formations", which he discriminates as 



