Flora Orieiitalis 119 



novelties which have been amassed : the " lUustrationes Plantarum 

 Orientahum" of Count Jaubert and M. Spach, six volumes in 

 quarto, containing one hundred species, with beautiful full-page un- 

 coloured illustrations; and the "Diagnoses Plantarum Orientalium" 

 of M. Boissier, nineteen fasciculi in octavo, which bind up into 

 two stout volumes. But the descriptions of a large number of the 

 new species, and a great number of records respecting the affini- 

 ties and geographical range of those which have been incorporated 

 in the largeworks, are scattered about in small pamphlets, and in the 

 " Transactions " and " Journals " at home and upon the continent. 

 The consequence, of course, is, that a large number of species have 

 been described in various places under different names, and that, 

 even with a full command of the necessary books, and access to an 

 herbarium containing the authentically-named sets of specimens, 

 it has been a most intricate and time-consuming task to attempt to 

 name a packet of Oriental plants, and that in the largely-repre- 

 sented and more intricate genera — as, for instance, Ranunculus, 

 Delphinium, Dianthus, Silene, Campanula or Crocus — a work that 

 seemed utterly hopeless to separate the known from unknown. 

 M. Boissier is a Genevese gentleman of ample means and experi- 

 ence, who has himself travelled extensively in the East, and the 

 botanically-allied tracts of southern Europe, for the express purpose 

 of studying their botany ; and for the last twenty -five years or more 

 has devoted himself specially to the subject. He, as we have just 

 indicated, has named and described a large proportion of the 

 novelties which have been discovered during that period, and has 

 undertaken the management and classification of many of the sets 

 of specimens which have been so largely distributed. It has been 

 for many years a most necessary and desirable task, both in the 

 interests of descriptive and geographical botany, that a general 

 " Flora Orientalis " should be undertaken ; and it has been fully 

 understood by all those who know anything about the matter, 

 that M. Boissier was the man of all others best fitted for the 

 task. 



The tract of country included in the work embraces — i. Greece, 

 including the islands of the Adriatic and Levant, and European 

 Turkey as far north as the Balkan ; 2. The Crimea, Georgia, and 

 both slopes of the Caucasus ; 3. Egypt up to the first cataracts of 

 the Nile, and Arabia north of the Tropic of Cancer; 4. Asia 

 Minor, Annenia, Syria, and Mesopotamia; 5. Persia, Affghanistan, 

 and Beloochistan ; and, 6. Tartary up to the 45th parallel of lati- 



