188 NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



aud genera. But it cannot be doubted that, when we obtain 

 collections from the western and south-western mountains of China, 

 we shall find the flora as rich as in the adjoining districts of Upper 

 Burma . 



For a work such as Prof. Engler has attempted it would appear 

 that the qualification of extensive travel is essential. A traveller 

 may correct the larger misconceptions educed from tabulation by 

 his own experience. The work of tabulation, as XDcrformed by 

 Prof. Engler, takes no account whatever of the number of indi- 

 viduals in a species, genus, or order. To get any idea of a flora 

 we require noted (at various seasons of the year) the predominant 

 plants, especially the trees, shrubs, and gregarious herbs. Tabu- 

 lations, supported by such lists, and made by the same traveller 

 who draws them up, are of the greatest value : these can of course 

 only be drawn up for moderate areas : when many such have forth- 

 come, a work similar to that of Dr. Engler may proceed from much 

 surer bases to more valuable conclusions. But it would be unfair 

 to say that nothing is to be done botanically till it can be done 

 completely ; or to deny the usefulness of Prof. Engler's work 

 because of its extremely fragmentary character. 



Compendio della Flora Italiana. Per Giovanni Arcangeli. Turin : 

 Loescher, 1882. 



The country included in this handy Flora of Italy takes 

 in from the Mediterranean, the Maritime, Cozie, Graje, Pennine, 

 Lepontine, Eetiche and Carniche Alps to Fiume on the Adriatic, 

 thus including Istria : Dalmatia with its adjacent islands, which 

 the author considers to have an intimate relation to the oriental 

 Flora, is excluded. From Fiume the Flora includes the islands 

 Pelagosa (Adriatic), Sicily, Malta, Pantellaria, Sardinia, Corsica, 

 hence to Varo. 



Prof. Arcanp-eli divides Italy into "Italia superiore," " I. media," 

 " I. inferiore,'' — Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. The classification 

 followed is a combination of that of Jussieu and DeCandolle. For 

 the orders he has taken as his model Hooker's ' Student's Flora,' 

 which he speaks of as " prezioso manuale." He gives a definition 

 of each order, short notes on the distribution, number of genera 

 and species included under it, affinities, properties, aud derivation 

 of the name. A clavis of the genera and description of the 

 species (in Italian) follow, the important parts being in italics. The 

 citation of authorities for the names of species is given at some- 

 what greater length than is usual in books of this kind. The 

 species sum up to the large number of 5050 (of which about 1294 

 are British or Irish). A comparison with Nyman's ' Conspectus,' 

 of two genera, will give a good idea of the limitation of species 

 followed ; thus, Saxifnuja, in the ' Flora,' has 46 species and 19 

 varieties ; Nyman, for Italy, has 43 species and 6 sub-species. Gen- 

 tiana, in the ' Flora,' has 20 species and 15 varieties ; Nyman, 19 

 species and 5 sub-species. This shows the author to have followed 

 a middle course in his estimate of species. 



