NOTICES OF BOOKS. 221 



Kingston Bridge. It is especially abundant opposite the Water- 

 works. This plant does not appear to have been met with hitherto 

 in Middlesex. — John Benbow. 



Carex paradoxa Willd. in Cambridgeshire. — This interesting 

 addition to the flora of Co. 29 grows in profusion in Wicken Fen. 

 It is somewhat remarkable that neither it nor any allied form seems 

 to have been recorded from this well-worked locality ; and the fact 

 of its being spread over a considerable tract of the fen may stimu- 

 late botanists to re-examine other districts of which the flora seems 

 to be thoroughly known. — Alfred Fryer. 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Die Hieracien Mittel-Europas. Monographische Bearbeitung tier Pilo- 

 selloiden mit hesonderer Berucksichtigung der mitteleuropdischen 

 Sippen. Von C. v. Nageli und A. Peter. Miinchen : Oldeu- 

 bourg. 1885. 8vo, pp. xi. 931.* 



The appearance of this long-expected book will be highly 

 welcome to every lover of plants. So classical a work requires no 

 recommendation to a botanical public ; but it is worthy of perusal 

 by every natural scientist, although he may have no intention of 

 making a special study of the Hieracia. 



The mass of matter in the book is enormous ; in the course of 

 more than twenty years' labour the authors acquired a knowledge 

 of such an immense number of forms distinct and constant, of every 

 gradation, that in order to prevent its assuming colossal proportions 

 they were compelled to discard a certain number : nevertheless 

 the number of distinct species amounts to 164 ; to most of them a 

 larger or smaller number of subspecies, varieties, and subvarieties 

 are attached, so that the grand total of described forms — "kindreds," 

 as the author calls them — is 2000. To have examined this vast 

 accumulation of material, to have carefully sifted and arranged it, 

 and at last described it all in the clearest manner, so that everyone 

 who does not fight shy of serious study may have at hand a sure 

 and safe guide into the region of these forms, is the chief merit of 

 this mighty work — a true monument of German scientific industry 

 at which no one will withhold his astonishment who knows what 

 labour of the kind really signifies. 



The arrangement of the systematic portion is as follows : — The 

 subgenus ViluseUa is in the first instance divided into acmdia and 

 ccndigera ; next the acaidia are subdivided into two, and the cauligera 

 into seven sections ; in each of these sections are the chief or typical 

 species as characteristics ; then follow the intermediates and 

 hybrids — those first which are within the section, next those con- 

 nected with the preceding one. The subspecies of the polymorphic 



* We are indebted to Dr. E. de Crespigny for this translation of Dr. E. 

 Hackel's review of this work, which appeared in the ' Oesterreichische Bota- 

 nische Zeitschrift' foi' May last. 



