NOTICES OF BOOKS AND MEMOIRS. 285 



object of his memoir, therefore, has been to subdivide these over- 

 grown genera into uniform groups marked by pecuhar and easily 

 recognized characters. Those principally employed by the author 

 are — the anther, by the form of which the whole Order is x^rimarily 

 divided into two great groups ; the direction of the spiral convo- 

 lution of the corolla-segments, the divisions of the disk, and espe- 

 cially the nature of the h'uit and the development of the seeds so 

 far as observations allow. To what extent this classification will 

 be accepted l)y botanists remains to be seen : its author has had the 

 advantage of studying the living plants in a wild state, and everyone 

 must admire the careful work evidenced throughout. Probably 

 many will demur to recognizing so many as sixty- six S. American 

 genera, of which twenty are here xDublished for the first time 

 (several are well-known plants however), and a proportionate 

 number of new species. This amount is remarkably large when it 

 is borne in mind that the author, fi'om several causes (enfeebled 

 health unfortunately being one), has been, to his great regret, 

 prevented from examining the herbarium at Kew, w^iich could not 

 fail to have added considerably to the species here included. 

 Hence those only of the British Museum and the author's own rich 

 herbarium, along with published species, are included. Extreme 

 difierentiation of forms is, however, characteristic of all Mr. Miers' 

 work, and is so clearly the result of an exhaustive examination of 

 his material, that it seems ungenerous to raise objections to it. 

 In his Preliminary Piemarks the author describes the structure 

 of the reproductive organs of the group Syniplujantherece, and comes 

 to the conclusion that " the work of fertilization is effected without 

 the aid or even the possibility of insect agency." He believes the 

 same to be also true of the Asdepiadea, in which he is opposed to 

 the view held by E. Brown. 



H. T. 



An Elementan/ Course of Botany, Structural, Physiological and 

 Systematic. By Prof. A. Henfeey. Third Edition, by M. T. 

 Mastees, M.D., F.E.S., &c. London, Van Voorst. 1878. 



The publication of a thii'd edition of this well-tried and valuable 

 text-book requires little more than the remark that it has been as 

 completely as possible brought up to date, so much indeed having 

 been added and altered that the Editor says it may to some extent 

 be considered a new book. This cannot be affirmed unconditionally, 

 however ; and though Dr. Masters speaks approvingly in his 

 Preface of the plan of aiTangement of the book, we scarcely think 

 it one which he would have adopted if writing a new one. Hen- 

 frey's treatise at the time of its first ai)j)earance was in most respects 

 admirable, but it ought never to have undergone "restoration" 

 by however competent a hand. The portion devoted to the Cryp- 

 togams is still unduly small, scarcely one-tenth of the book : this 

 has been revised, and the Fungi re-wTitten by Mr. George Murray, 

 of the British Museum, who has endeavoured to get as much as 

 possible into this inadequate space, wdth perhaps some sacrifice of 



