HANDBTICH DKR SYSTKMATISCHKN ROTANIK 281 



forty years ago, but his model has been departed from in so many 

 other matters that the retention of this\nisleading method can 

 hardly be justified on the score of uniformity ; it is moreover out 

 of harmony with the plan of the other colonial floras. The printing 

 of the adjectival forms of proper names without a capital letter is a 

 recent Kew eccentricity which we had hoped to have seen abandoned ; 

 it is not in accordance with precedent (either in the earlier volumes 

 of the work or in the other colonial floras) or with custom, either 

 at home or abroad: neither the American nor the Berlin rules adopt 

 it ; and it is flatly opposed to the Decandollean " laws," which say : 

 " Whatever be the form chosen, every specific name derived from 

 the name of a person should begin with a capital letter." 



Another unsightliness which tends to confusion is the printing 

 in italics not only the synonymy, but also the names of the authors 

 and books cited: this renders the synonyms difficult to distinguish. 

 In the earlier volumes of the work the same difficulty was not felt, 

 as the synonyms and references were few ; now they often extend 

 to twelve or thirteen lines, and occupy more space than the descrip- 

 tion of the plant. It is, we think, to be regretted that the earlier 

 plan, by which synonyms and references were mainly confined to 

 those which pertained to the plant in its connection with South 

 Africa, has given place to something like a complete bibliography. 

 This, it seems to us, is entirely out of place in a work of the kind ; 

 it must add materially to the cost and extent of the Flora, and thus 

 render it much less convenient for use in the field. 



We note that Mr. Rolfe has a new species, Selar/o Muudii, 

 named from a collector whom he calls '' Muud." According to 

 Harvey (Gen. S. Af. PI. 26), Kunth in establishing his genus 

 Mundia fell into a similar error; Harvey considered it was "in- 

 tended to commemorate the services rendered to botany by M. 

 Mundt, a most meritorious collector of South African plants," and 

 he accordingly altered the spelling to Mundtia, in which form it 

 appears in Bentham & Hooker's Genera, and in many other books. 

 It is not, however, quite certain that Kunth had Mundt in view,^:^ 

 and in any case the spelling as published, both in this and in Mr. 

 Rolfe's case, must stand, in accordance with the practice which 

 has accepted Cinchona in preference to the more etymologically 

 correct Chinchona. 



Handbuch der Sijstemathchen Botanik. Von Dr. Richard R. v. 

 Wettstein, Professor an der Universitat Wien. Bd. l' 

 8vo, pp. iv, 201, tt. 126. Leipzig & Wien: Fr. Deuticke.* 



J- JU J. . 



The object of this new handbook is to give a more detailed 

 account of the systematic phase of botany than is contained in 

 the general text-books. The author intends also to pay special 

 attention to questions of phylogeny. To these ends the more im- 

 portant types will be reviewed and illustrated as fully as possible, 



* See a note in this Journal for 1889, p. 262. 



