21 



HANDBOOK OF THE BROMELIACE^E. 



ptdicaris. Banks of Thurso River. — *C. vulgaris var. juncella, 

 Thurso River. — *C. 2^aludosa. Isauld Burn. 



West Sutherland. — *Thalictrum ma jus Crantz. East bank of 

 the Naver River, Bettyhill. — *Erodium cicutarium. Near Bettyhill. 

 — *Senecio sylvaticus. Bettyhill. — S. Jacobaa var. flosculosus (Jord. ). 

 Plentiful on hill-sides, and by road -sides round Bettyhill. Mr. 

 Hanbury noticed it last year. I also saw several plants intermediate 

 between the variety and the type. — Hieracium nitidum. Cliffs near 

 the mouth of the River Naver. — *H. sparsifolium (?). Strath Naver. 

 — H. auratum Fr. Melvich; near the mouth of the River Naver; 

 near Altnaharrow. — H. strictwnFr. Strath Bagaisteach. — *Pyrola 

 media. Strath Bagaisteach. — Stachys arvensis. Probably intro- 

 duced, growing on waste land formerly under cultivation ; Creag 

 Ruadh, Bettyhill. — Jancus fluitans. Altnaharrow. — Carex filiformis. 

 Loch Mer, Invernaver. — * Arrhenatherum avenaceum. — William 

 F. Miller. 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 

 Handbook of the Bromeliacea. By J. G. Baker, F.R.S., F.L.S. 

 8vo. Pp. xi. and 243. London : G. Bell & Sons. August, 

 1889. Price 5s. 



This handbook, uniform, as the author reminds us, with those 

 already published on the Fern-allies and Amaryllideae, represents 

 another of Mr. Baker's generous gifts to Systematic Botany. 

 Monographs of some of the larger genera have already appeared 

 in this Journal, and the great attention which the order has recently 

 received is seen from the fact that while the " Synopsis of 

 sEchmea," published in this Journal for 1879, contains 58 species, 

 no less than 128 are described in the " Handbook." Pitcairnia, in 

 1881, included 70 species, as against 130 in 1889; and so recently 

 as 1888, TiUandsia, which now numbers 323, contained only 211 

 species. This increase is largely due to the energy of Dr. Glaziou, 

 of Rio Janeiro. 



The present hand-book contains descriptions of above 800 

 species, more than double Mr. Bentham's estimate of the number 

 known in 1883, the date of publication of the third volume of the 

 'Genera Plan tar urn.' This, Mr. Baker says, is doubtless "far 

 short of the number that will ultimately be found," for " during 

 the last year M. Andre has added 60 new species from his own 

 gatherings in New Granada and Ecuador, and Dr. Wittmack 

 about 20 from the collections of Consul Lehmann." In fact, it 

 seems only necessary to seek in order to find, for from quite a few 

 Bromeliads collected near Pernambuco in 1887 by Mr. Ramage, 

 Mr. Baker describes a new one, Mchmea Ridleyi. 



In drawing up about two hundred of the descriptions, the 

 author has had the advantage of the living plants at Kew ; the 

 dried collections at the British Museum and Kew have together 

 supplied specimens of about half the known species, and the 

 herbaria of Berlin and Paris have also contributed. To judge from 



