CONSPECTUS FLOR^ AFRlC^E. 89 



will be readily overlooked in view of the great boon they have 

 conferred upon botanists by the prompt publication of this carefully 

 compiled work. 



The aim of the Conspectus being merely to provide an index of 

 African plants, no attempt is made at a scientific arrangement of 

 the species. These are arranged in alphabetical order under the 

 names which are retained by the most recent monographers, or 

 claim recognition on other grounds. While fully recognising the 

 limitations of space, we regret that there is no way of finding 

 synonyms other than by hunting steadily through the genus for 

 them. Some index to these, at any rate in the larger genera, 

 should have been provided : the plan adopted in Sereno Watson's 

 Index to North American Botany, where at the end of each genus is 

 given a list of reduced names with their equivalents, takes little 

 space, and is as convenient as any. We commend this suggestion 

 to the compilers, hoping that they may see their way to adopt it in 

 the forthcoming volumes. In CyperarecB, for example, where the 

 same plant has been described in numerous genera, the labour of 

 finding a Crjperus is somewhat serious ; the genus as it here stands 

 occupies about forty pages, and the introduction of Mr. C. B. 

 Clarke's rearrangement of the genera may render a search necessary 

 through at least as many more. For the genera, M, Durand's 

 most useful Index Gencnnn has been followed, with such additions 

 and alterations as the six years which have elapsed since its publi- 

 cation have rendered necessary. 



The objection that the work, from its extent, contains several 

 distinct floras, is also met by remembering that it is merely intended 

 as an index of what has been done. The future authors of Flora 

 Capensis or the Flora of Tropical Africa will be grateful for having 

 so much material thus brought to their hand ; from the Conspectus, 

 too, we shall be able to make a list of the Madagascar plants now 

 scattered through so many periodicals, and never hitherto brought 

 together. Not only are full references given to each important 

 pubhcation for the species, but collectors' numbers, whenever 

 known, are cited — a help to the herbarium botanist which the 

 Flora of Tropical Africa and other Kew publications too often fail 

 to supply. 



Although original work is not to be looked for in a work of this 

 kind, the compilers have supplied it in the shape of a new arrange- 

 ment of the IridecB by Dr. F. W. Klatt, and a rearrangement of the 

 CyperaceiB by Mr. C. B. Clarke, in accordance with the monograph 

 which he has prepared for the Suites an Prodromus. As is well 

 known, Dr. Klatt takes a much more restricted view of species than 

 Mr. J. G. Baker, the most recent monograplier of the order ; and 

 we are inclined to regret that the latter author has not been 

 followed, although the dictum of the compilers — "II nous semble 

 que M. Baker reunit trop et M. Klatt pas assez " — is probably in 

 accordance with the facts of the case. 



Mr. Clarke's enumeration of the Cyperacece occupies nearly two 

 hundred pages, and is interesting not only because of the manifest 

 care with which it is carried out, but as affording an indication of 



