NOTICES OF BOOKS AND MEMOIRS. 91 



catalogue is very free from errors, and is enriched with numerous 

 references to other works, and with a comprehensive index. It 

 does not inckide the vahiable collections bequeathed to the Society 

 by the lamented Hanbury ; these it is intended to catalogue along 

 with his herbarium — which is very rich in some particulars e.g., 

 Zingiberacece, — in a supplementary Catalogue. 



H. T. 



Fascicle 74 of the 'Flora Brasiliensis ' contains the Humiriacem 

 and LinecR by Urban, and the (KvalidecB, Geraniacea, and Yivianiacea 

 by Progel. 



Dr. Ernst, of Caracas, has published an account of a little- 

 known botanist, Senor J. M. Vargas, which was read before the 

 Society of Sciences, at Caracas, on the occasion of the deposition 

 last year, in the National Pantheon there, of the remains of the 

 botanist. J. M. Vargas was born at La GuajTa, the sea-port of 

 Caracas, on the 2nd of March, 1786. After having concluded his 

 medical studies in Caracas, he took his degree as M.D. in 1808, 

 and went some years afterwards (in 1814) to Edinburgh, where he 

 remained till 1817. He then resided in Porto Piico till 1827, when 

 he returned to his native country, taking up his residence at 

 Caracas, where he was named Professor of Anatomy and Surgery. 

 He died in New York in 1854, and his remains were brought, in 

 1877, to Caracas. The memoir contains, as an appendix, several 

 letters between Vargas and other botanists, especially A. P. 

 DeCandolle, to whom he sent many plants. A list of those men- 

 tioned in the ' Prodi'omus ' is here given, of which over thirty were 

 new to science, and there first described. Dr. Ernst concludes 

 his memoir by proposing Vargasia as a new genus of Marc- 

 graviea., founded on two species growing in Venezuela, and 

 differing from Ruyschia in the number and aiTangement of the 

 stamens, the bilocular ovary, and the bi-convex bracts on the 

 flow^er pedicels. 



The lately-published ' History of Harting,' by the Eev. H. D. 

 Gordon, contains a notice of the flora of that West Sussex parish, 

 by J. Weaver. 



We are glad to call attention to a new monthly journal devoted 

 to Natural History, the * Midland Naturalist ' (Birmingham), 

 which, to judge from the first three numbers, will be a very useful 

 medium of inter- communication for the members of the numerous 

 societies in the midland counties. All branches of science are 

 included. In botany, there are papers on Abnormal Ferns, by 

 E. J. Lowe; the Kelations of Chlorophyll and Starch, by Dr. 

 Hinds ; the Distribution of the Genus Ilom through Warwick- 

 shire, i3y J. E. Bagnall, &c. The editors are Messrs. Badger 

 and Harrison, and the London agents Messrs. Hardwicke and 

 Bogue. The Magazine is very well and neatly printed, and the 

 price sixpence. 



