39 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Catalogue of the African Plants collected by Dr. Friedrich Weltvitsch in 

 1853-61. Part iii.— Dipsacefe to Scrophulariacere (1899). 

 Part IV. — Lentibulariacese to Ceratopbyllefe (1900). By 

 William Philip Hiern, M.A., F.L.S. British Museum 

 (Natural History) : Dulau & Co. 



Mr. Hiern is to be congratulated on the completion of bis part 

 —the Dicotyledons— of the Welwitsch Catalogue. The Mono- 

 cotyledons were published by Dr. Rendle in 1899— we regret that 

 Dr. Schinz's other occupations have prevented him from preparing 

 the notice of that part of the work which he had promised to con- 

 tribute to these pages ; and the volume devoted to Cryptogams is 

 passing through the press. In the course of next year, therefore, 

 we may expect the completion of this lasting memorial to one of 

 Africa's most eminent botanical explorers. 



In our notice of the first part of the Catalogue (Jonrn. Bot. 

 1897, 23-26) we indicated sufficiently the plan of the work, and paid 

 tribute to the care and labour which Mr. Hiern had bestowed upon 

 it. Although many of Welwitsch's novelties have been described in 

 monographs, floras, and occasional publications, there yet remained 

 a considerable number to reward Mr. Hiern's investigations. Thus 

 in part iii. we have one new genus ( Velvitsia in Scrophulariacea — 

 a very striking plant) and 127 new species, nearly half of them 

 Composit(B; and in part iv. a new genus, Syniplostemon of Wel- 

 witsch's MSS.— a Labiate earlier referred by Mr. C. H. Wright to 

 Plectranthus — and eighty-nine new species. The Composite genus 

 Ade7iogo7ium, published from Welwitsch's MSS. in this Journal for 

 1898 '(p. 290, t. 389) as new, had been already cited by Oliver 

 (Ic. PI. t. 2205) as a synonym of Eufjleria ; and Mr. Hiern accepts 

 this reduction, although he does not follow Oliver in regarding 

 Welwitsch's plant as a variety of E. qfricana, but describes it as a 

 new species — E. decumhens. 



We note that M. Hallier is followed in the limitation of the 

 genera of Convolviilacece, and also mainly (perhaps somewhat too 

 absolutely) as to species. Urticacece is divided, in accordance with 

 Engler and Prantl, into three orders — Moracea and Ulmace(B being 

 separated from the aggregate group. There is a good deal of work 

 in Amaranthacea, where we find Adanson's name for Mrva, adopted 

 by Dr. Kuntze in the modified form JJretia, stands in its original 

 ugliness as Ouret, just as his Pupal replaces the more euphonious 

 Pupalia of Jussieu ; Pandiaka Heudelotii, cited by Jackson as of 

 Benth. & Hook, f., is here given more correctly as of " Jacks. Ind. 

 Kew.," where the generic and specific names are first definitely 

 combined. 



When noticing the last part of the Flora of Tropical Africa 

 (pp. 279-281), we referred to the unfortunate absence of correlation 

 between Mr. Hiern's work and that proceeding at the same time 

 at Kew on the same groups of plants, and the consequent and 

 unnecessary increase of synonymy. We are glad to know that 



