68 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



official Strophanthics seeds contain the same active principles, 

 which is certainly not the case, and S. Kombe Oliv. is not the 

 only species that is used in the preparation of arrow poison. 

 Grindclia robusta Nutt. (p. 94) has been shown by Perredes 

 not to be the species that is used in medicine, which is 

 G. camporum Greene, although of course that species is men- 

 tioned in the present pharmacopoeia. These criticisms show that 

 current English literature has been somewhat neglected, and the 

 hope may be expressed that, by remedying this omission in a 

 future edition, the work may be rendered still more useful to 

 those readers for whom it is intended. 



E. M. H. 



TJie Botany of Iceland. Edited by L. Kolderup Eosenvinge 

 and Eug. Warming. Part I. — i. The Marine Algal 

 Vegetation, by Helgi Jonsson. Copenhagen : Erimodt. 

 1912. 186 pp. 7 figs. 

 It is some four years since the publication of that admirable 

 Danish work The Botany of the Faeroes was completed. The 

 promise then given that the Botany of Iceland should receive 

 a like treatment is now in course of fulfilment. The present 

 part initiates a series of monographs founded upon a thorough 

 investigation of the entire flora of the island. The section here 

 treated is the marine algal vegetation, and represents the outcome 

 of the researches made during some years by the author, Helgi 

 Jonsson. In 1887 Stromfelt published a paper, " Om Algevege- 

 tationen vid Islands Kuster," in which he gathered together all 

 the older records of Icelandic algae, adding to them the results of 

 his own explorations ; his work was mainly systematic. Jonsson, 

 on the other hand, allots but twenty pages to his systematic list, 

 and devotes the rest of the work, nearly one hundred and sixty 

 pages, to an account of the local ecology and distribution of the 

 algae, treating the subject under the following heads : — (1) Life- 

 conditions of the marine algal vegetation, in reference to the nature 

 of the coast and to the ocean, air, and light. (2) Horizontal 

 distribution of the species ; also the components of the flora (with 

 reference to their respective climatic origins). (3) Comparison 

 with neighbouring floral districts. (4) Vertical distribution of 

 the species. (5) Marine algal vegetation, with special reference 

 to growth-associations of various species. (6) Differences in the 

 vegetation in east and south Iceland. (7) Notes on the biology 

 of the algae along the coast of Iceland. 



The impression left by a perusal of Jonsson's work is that it 

 has been carefully elaborated, and that it will afford much help 

 and instruction to those who are interested in the associations 

 and in the distribution of algae on our own coasts, especially in 

 Scotland and Ireland. 



A. & E. S. Gepp. 



