233 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



uniting tliem is a most useful and comprehensive text-book. In the 

 critical genera Rosa, Rubus, and Ilieracmm, Dr. Hooker acknowledges 

 Mr. Baker's assistance. Professor Oliver and General Munro are 

 also thanked for help. 



The arrangement of the Natural Orders is the one usually adopted, 

 with, howev^er, some modifications; an excellent synopsis is prefixed to 

 the Plora. The chief deviations from the grouping commonly in use 

 in English manuals are these : Portulacece, Paronychiacece (including 

 Sclerajithus), Tamariscinece, lUcinece, and Einpdracece, are placed in 

 the Thalamiflora ; Acer'mece, Droserucew, and Gornacece are found with 

 the Calyciflora ; and Loranthacece is grouped with the Apetalae. lu 

 this last subdivision we also find Euphorbiacetje and Ceratophyllum, 

 whilst Callitriche is retained in the Haloragece, an Order Dr. Hooker 

 thinks nearer to Saxifrages (in which he includes Parnassia and Rides) 

 and Rhizophorea. than to Onagrariece, In several of these points the 

 ' Student's Flora' differs from Mr. Bentham's ' Handbook ;' and it is 

 somewhat remarkable that neither author, in their British manuals, 

 should have employed the polypetalous subdivision Disciflorce of their 

 ' Genera Plantarum.' The monocotyledonous Orders require a fur- 

 ther grouping ; a student would certainly not be able, by the present 

 conspectus, to discover a Lemua or a Typha, for he would scarcely 

 look under Petaloidece for them. 



Many of the small genera are reduced to sections of larger ones, and 

 some of the latter are still further divided into subsections more or less 

 natural. Ranunculus aurioomus and R. sceleratus are strange com- 

 panions. Not a few species of the ' London Catalogue ' become sub- 

 species in the ' Flora,' but in British botany Dr. Hooker- seems far less 

 inclined to mass together distinct forms than is Mr. Bentham. All the 

 subspecies and varieties in the ' London Catalogue ' and Syme's ' En- 

 glish Botany ' are noticed under tlie superspecies, and briefly charac- 

 terized in well-chosen terms. One is a little astonished at finding 

 such critical plants as Rauunculus Lenonnandi and Arabis ciUaia rank- 

 ing as full species, whilst all the other Batracliiums (except hedei'aceus) 

 arc massed under Ran/incnlus aqHatilis, and all the Arcliains under A. 

 Lappa. 



The nomenclature of the species has had much care bestowed upon 

 it, and several changes of name have resulted, partly from the abolition 

 of small genera, but also from the adoption of earlier appellations. The 



