70 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



south and south-west comprised within the tropic. The reason for 

 this would appear to be that Bentham in the Flora Austral iensis 

 included all this country in the term ** North Australia," a fact some- 

 times overlooked by the compilers. The publication may be welcomed 

 as an incentive to further exploration of this, even now, little-known 

 part of the island continent. Its value as a handy guide would have 

 been increased if the help of some one having access to the London 

 herbaria had been secured, as those herbaria contain a large number 

 of records either not known to or not noticed by Bentham. Especially 

 is this the case with Robert Brown's and Allan Cunningham's 

 collections, which, in spite of more recent labours, still remain the 

 most important and fruitful in this special field. Moreover, access to 

 the types of those collectors would have obviated mistakes into which 

 the compilers could scarcely have fallen had they been more 

 fortunately circumstanced with regard to the old material in question. 



Although of necessity largely a compilation, the volume contains 

 descriptions of new genera and species during the expedition by 

 Gilruth and Spencer and the Barclay expedition, the dates of which 

 are not stated. There are four new genera — two in Graminese 

 (Spafha and Setosa), one in Caryophyllaceae (Bossittia), and one in 

 CouYolvnlacesd (Carpentia) : all of Ewart's. The first two names 

 (the former is not in the index) are in opposition to the Vienna Laws, 

 which are unfortunateh^ ignored in other respects — e. g. the descrip- 

 tions throughout are in English only, and are thus, by the Laws, not 

 entitled to recognition. The novelties are illustrated hj twenty-seven 

 plates, which, though useful, leave a good deal to be desired as to 

 execution : the large Roman figures on some of them are unnecessarily 

 aggressive. 



In its general get-up, indeed, the book is very unsatisfactory : we 

 have seldom seen a volume in which the arrangement and typography 

 offer so much ground for unfavourable criticism. The descriptions 

 are given in clavis form, but the ordinary method by which the name 

 of the species is separated from the description and brought out to 

 the end of the line, the name itself being printed in different type 

 from the text, is here ignored : the names are continuous with the 

 text and the type is the same as that employed for it. Seeing that 

 Bentham's Flora Australiensis must have been constantly in the 

 hands of the compilers it seems almost incredible that the obvious 

 convenience of its arrangement should have been ignored in favour of 

 one for which nothing can be said. The resom'ces of typography have 

 not been utilized, the important aid to clearness which is afforded b}- a 

 judicious use of black t3'^pe — here reserved for the names of orders — has 

 not been recognized, though almost every modern Flora illustrates its 

 advantages. " The Flora of the Northern Territory " stands at the head 

 of each page, which should be, as it is in all well-planned Floras, made 

 a source of useful information. On the other hand, information is 

 sometimes given which seems useless : of what gain can it be to those 

 who use the book to know that for Panicum^ for example, fourteen 

 generic names have been emploj'-ed ? The space thus occupied — which 

 in the aggregate is considerable — would have been better employed 

 in adding useful bibliographical references, which are conspicuously 



