5© PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 



have brought out a ' Catalogue raisonnc dea plantes vaeeulaires 

 dea lies Balcarcs ' in an 8vo vol. of 370 pages. 



Dr. "Wainio has added a considerable memoir to the literature of 

 Lapland Lichens in the ' pro Fauna et Flora Fennica ; ' and E. van 

 Lindemann has issued the first volume of his * Flora chersonensis ' 

 at Odessa. 



Dr. Ascherson has drawn up a nominal list of species known to 

 occur on the central northern African district ; this appeared in 

 the ' Botanisches Centralblatt,' viii. ; whilst the first volume of a 

 more important work has also been issued, namely, Dr. E. Cos- 

 aon's * Compendium florae Atlanticse.' This volume, from the pen 

 of the highest authority on the North- African flora, has been natu- 

 rally looked forward to with much interest ; but this preliminary 

 volume is filled with introductory matter, and does not deal with 

 a single species. 



Of Central-African plants, the only addition to our knowledge 

 that I can cite is that of Prof. Ficalho and Mr. Hiern, which 

 came out in our ' Transactions,' it being a description of the new 

 plants brought back by Major Serpa Pinto, the Portuguese tra- 

 veller. A catalogue of Canary-Island plants was also printed in 

 the form of an inaugural dissertation by Fritz Sauer at Halle ; 

 and M. E. Bescherelle has published an account of the Mosses 

 found in Reunion and neighbouring islands in the 'Annales des 

 Sciences naturelles.' 



Of Asian botany, I may mention that Dr. Maximo^dcz, our 

 Foreign Member, is still publishing his Diagnoses of new Asian 

 plants ; and that the third fascicide of M. L. Pierre's Forest- 

 flora of Cochinchina is also in our hands. Mr. W. H. Grregg 

 has published a textbook of Indian botany in a small volume of 

 80 pages at Calcutta, which I have not seen ; and Dr. Masters, in 

 our own Journal, has given a full account of the Conifers of Japan. 

 In the last Botanical part issued of our Journal also, there will be 

 found an enumeration of the plants collected by Dr. Aitchison 

 in his second journey into Afghanistan. 



Previous to Aitchison, there was only one noteworthy collec- 

 tion from Afghanistan in this country, namely, that made by W. 

 Grifiith during the first Afghan war. Though numerous as to 

 species, the specimens were, to a great extent, imperfect, quite in 

 contrast to Dr. Aitchison's admirably prepai'ed specimens ; seventy 

 of these latter have been described, and thirty of them figured 

 in our Journal. Besides Griffith, Honigberger passed through 

 Afghanistan ; but his collections were very trifling, and were de- 

 scribed by Endlichcr in his ' Sertum cabulicum.' Honigberger 

 was not able to collect in any quantity, but only a few scraps 

 here and there : it is a marvel how he managed to escape with 

 his life. The flora is of very great interest ; it shows the penin- 

 sula flora dying out towards the north, and the Central- Asian 

 flora doing the same southward. Little is known of the Central- 

 Steppe flora save through the Russian botanists. 



