84 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



discussed. The subject is widely conceived, and, in the limited 

 space, fairly well carried out. It is, however, the fault of many 

 similar books that, in the attempt to tell everything, much is left 

 unexplained. Thus we find that " damping-off " of seedling sugar- 

 canes is caused by three different fungi — Pythium Deharyanuvi, 

 which is fully described in the introductory chapters, Bhizoctonia, 

 and Glomerella ; there is no indication, however, as to the appear- 

 ance or the affinities of the two latter — they are mere names. The 

 same inequality of treatment is meted out to many other genera 

 and species. 



Fungi imperfccti receive scant attention, though they are 

 responsible for many leaf-diseases. Many of them are the imper- 

 fect or development stage of some Ascomycete or Basidiomycete, 

 and in not a few instances the full life-history is well known ; yet 

 Dr. Cook writes, "The Fungi ivqjcrfecti are so called because we 

 do not understand their life-history and development." 



The illustrations are abundant and instructive, and the book 

 will doubtless be of great value to the agriculturist in the tropics. 

 A bibliography is appended of the literature dealing with culti- 

 vated tropical plants. « t c< 



^ ^ A. LoRRAiN Smith. 



The Flora of South Africa. By Kudolf Marloth. Vol. i. 4to, 

 with 36 coloured and 30 monochrome plates. London : 

 Wm. Wesley &■ Son. Subscription price for the volume £2 2s. 



By his collections of South African plants and his published 

 memoirs Dr. Marloth has won a deservedly high reputation 

 among students of South African botany ; it was fitting, there- 

 fore, that he should have been entrusted with the task of pro- 

 ducing a series of four well-illustrated volumes designed to do 

 justice to the varied and wonderful flora with which he is so well 

 acquainted. In these days of research in all directions, a mere 

 enumeration of genera and species is obviously insufficient for the 

 purpose, since such an enumeration, while indispenable for deter- 

 mining the position and affinities of a plant, leaves the whole 

 romance of its history untouched. Enquiry is much concerned 

 nowadays with the relations of plants to their environment, with 

 the causes underlying the phenomena of their distribution, with 

 details of their structure and chemical constitution, and with the 

 ways in which they are or may be rendered serviceable to the 

 ever-growing wants of mankind. It is from all these points 

 of view that Dr. Marloth has endeavoured to treat the subject. 

 He first gives the characters of a family and then a key to the 

 genera included in it ; this is followed by an account, often at con- 

 siderable length, of species selected as possessing peculiar interest 

 in one or more of the ways above-mentioned. When it is added 

 that the families are sufficiently and often lavishly illustrated by 

 means of coloured and monochrome plates, reinforced by a num- 

 ber of figures in the text, it will be seen that high things have been 

 aimed at, and so far at least as the volume before us permits of a 

 judgment, we have no hesitation in saying, with unqualified success. 



The present volume commences with the Thallophyta, treated 



