THE 



NATURAL HISTORY REVIEW: 



A 



QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE. 



§Ubbltrs. 



I. — Flora Brasiliensis : Edidit Carolus Fred. Phil, de Martius. 

 Fasc. xxv. el xxvi. Saxtalace^e et MYRisncACEiE. Exposuit Alph. 

 de Candolle, 36 pp., 8 plates. Apocyxace^e. Exposuit Joan. Miiller, 

 Argoviensis, 180 pp., 53 plates, folio. 



This great work is proceeding slowly, but steadily, under the editorship 

 and superintendence of Dr. von Martifts. When first that distinguished 

 traveller and botanist undertook, in conjuction with the late Dr. End- 

 licher of Vienna, the preparation of a complete Flora of the Brazilian 

 Empire, he hoped to have contributed a great proportion of it himself; 

 and, accordingly, one of the first parts published — the " Anonaceae" — 

 was entirely his own. But he soon found, that if carried through on the 

 scale he contemplated, it was far beyond the work of a single man ; and 

 he applied himself to the obtaining the collaboration of the most active 

 among modern systematic botanists. Upon this plan, the different natural 

 orders are undertaken by different monographists, each one availing him- 

 self of the materials supplied by Dr. von Martius, and of such others as 

 could be obtained from the herbaria accessible to each, — Dr. von Martius 

 reserving for his own share such revision of the MSS. as may be neces- 

 sary to put them in conformity with the general plan, the superinten- 

 dence of the printing and engraving, and in many instances the prepa- 

 ration of the drawings. This course has insured the more careful 

 working out of the different parts than could be obtained by any other 

 means, and was perhaps the only feasible plan. But it necessarily entails 

 a want of unity of principle, which will be a great obstacle to the deduc- 

 tion of general conclusions from the work when completed. The uni- 

 formity secured by the editor's labours can be external only ; for the 

 systematic views of the different contributors are as different as the ma- 

 vol. i. — x. H. R. B 



