286 NOTICES OF BOOKS AND MEMOIRS. 



clearness to brevity. The systematic descriiDtion of the Orders of 

 Phanerogams is very full, with many fresh intercalations, forming 

 quite an encyclop£edia of information. Taking the book as a 

 whole, indeed, there is no English text-book of the size which 

 contams so much varied and accurate information in all depart- 

 ments of Botany. 



H. T. 



Botanical Note-Book, a practical guide to a knowledge of Botany. 

 By E. M. Holmes, F.L. S. London, Christy & Co. 1878. 

 This little book, which apart from the "schedules" contains 

 about sixty pages only, is intended to help to the acquirement of 

 such a practical acquaintance with Botany as shall enable a 

 student to find out easily the Natural Order to which any flowering 

 plant belongs, and to obtain a correct knowledge of the use of 

 botanical terminology. It is exceedingly elementary, and suited 

 to the needs rather of students of pharmaceutical than medical 

 schools. Directions as to the mode of examining plants is followed 

 by a Glossary of the terms applied to each organ, somethmg on 

 the i)lan of Lindley's ' Descriptive Botany,' but with the derivation 

 and accentuation of each term given. This is carefully prepared, 

 but a few slips should be corrected : under Albumen the word 

 "seed" should be embryo ; the fruits of the Lahiata' and Boraijinece 

 can never be correctly termed pyrenes ; there is no necessity for 

 an oval leaf to be obtuse at the ends. The most attractive feature 

 is two "charts," one of the main divisions of the vegetable 

 kingdom and the other of British Natural Orders, which will save 

 the student the trouble of making similar ones for himself — perhaps 

 after all not an unmixed advantage. In the explanations of the 

 charts more care should have been taken, so as to avoid such 

 statements as that Ehamnus is apetalous, that the jDerianth of 

 Juncaceic is six-jjarted, and that Cyperacecc are to be known from 

 Grasses by the staminate flowers in the majority being arranged 

 in the terminal spikelet and the bracts underneath each flower 

 three or more in number. A useful Floral Calendar concludes the 

 Note-Book. 



H. T. 



The 76th Fasciculus of the ' Flora Brasiliensis ' consists of the 

 Lehinacea by Hegelmaier, and the AnicecB by Engler. It is dated 

 1st February, 1878. The morphology and anatomy of the Duck- 

 weeds, by the former author, is illustrated by a fine plate. The 

 flowers and fi-uit of Lemna (Spirodela) jwJyrhiza are drawn from 

 North American specimens, as aU those seen from Brazil are, like 

 the British ones, barren. The Aracem are elaborately treated, and 

 illustrated by 51 plates, four of which are devoted to histology. 

 P/.st/rt is very fully exhibited in the last plate ; Engler reduces all 

 the described species to one. 



Dr. A. Ernst, in his ' E studios sobre la Flora y Fauna de Vene- 

 zuela ' (1877, Caracas), gives a general sketch of the Flora of that 



