108 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



has induced Mr. Jackson to cite "Ait." as the authority, though in 

 that case ''Ait. f." or "W. T. Ait." would be more accurate. 



James Britten. 



NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



Flora of Tropical Africa. Vol. V., Part iii. London : Lovell 

 Reeve. 1900. Price 8s. net. 



This part contains pp. 385-546, and was published last December ; 

 it completes the volume, and, with the exception of the Addenda 

 (pp. 506-526), index (pp. 527-545), etc., is entirely the work of 

 Mr. J. G. Baker ; it contains the bulk — about five-sevenths — of the 

 LabiatcB, as well as the seven species of Flantarfo, which are the only 

 members of the Plantai/inem in the Flora. The authorship of the 

 Addenda is not particularly stated, but from internal evidence it 

 seems that the authors of the several natural orders which were 

 elaborated in the volume contributed to the corresponding portions 

 (if any) to the Addenda ; thus, Mr. Burkill and Mr. C. B. Clarke to 

 the Acanthacea, and Mr. Baker to the rest. There remains, perhaps, 

 some doubt on this point ; for on the last page of the Addenda 

 Solenostemon niveus is taken up from the Welwitsch Catalogue, a 

 species which was founded upon the same plant (Welwitsch, 

 n. 5619) as had been described on p. 437 under the name of 

 Coleus orhicHiaris Baker ; and these two names are not correlated 

 in the Addenda. 



Botanists can now obtain in a systematic sense a comprehensive 

 and concise survey of the Ldbiatm of Tropical Africa with an ease 

 that was not previously possible. The number of genera ni this and 

 in the latter portion of part ii. is given as 43 ; and the number of 

 species is 571, of which 21 species are found only in the Addenda. 



No new genus is here pubhshed for the first time, and the 

 limitations of the genera are kept as close as possible to that 

 settled in the Genera Plantaruni by Bentham, who had devoted 

 during many years a great deal of attention to the order, and 

 the value of whose judgment in the matter of genera is universally 

 acknowledged ; several revisions made by recent authors are not 

 adopted ; and, as might have been expected, work done at Kew has 

 received in some instances preferential treatment. 



Five volumes of the Flora have now been published, and their 

 dates are as follows: vol. i. in 1868, vol. ii. in 1871, vol. iii. in 1877, 

 vol. vii. in 1897-98, and vol. v. in 1899-1900 ; so far as appears 

 from them, Labiatm stands fourth in number of species, the only 

 larger numbers being 833 for LeguminoscB in 1871, 719 for OrchidecB 

 in 1897-98, and 681 for AcanthncecB in 1899-1900 ; the next largest 

 numbers were 478 for FubiaceeB in 1877, 473 for Liliacea in 1898, 

 and 471 for Composites in 1877. But, having regard to the differ- 

 ences in the dates, to the progress made during the last twenty-three 

 years, and to the more critical idea of a species which now prevails 

 at Kew, there is no doubt that Fubiacem and Composite are each 



