188 LA BOTANICA IN ITALIA. 



The figures are useful also, but very disappointing in so far as 

 no idea is given in any of them of their maguitication or otherwise. 



Notwithstanding that here and tliere are insinuated what appear 

 to us somewliat unnecessary or obsolete opinions {e. ;/. discussion 

 on hereditary transmission of disease among pLmts, p. 82 ; views 

 on Lichens, p. 109), these defects detract very little from a work 

 which supplies a want, and which is well worth the careful atten- 

 tion of all students who are beginning the study of Tungi from a 

 systematic standpoint. 



John Percival. 



La Botanica in Italia. Materiali per la storia di questa scienzia 

 raccolti da P. A. Saccardo. Venezia : Ferrari, 1895. 4to, 

 pp. 236. Price 10 lire. 



Prof. Saccardo in this volume gives us a useful summary of 

 the lives of those who have contributed to our knowledge of ItaUan 

 botany. It is somewhat in the manner of the Biographical Index 

 of British Botanists which was originally issued in these pages, but 

 differs in certain particulars— t'.//. living as well as dead authors 

 are included, and botanists of other countries who have written on 

 Italian plants are included. After the name of the author, comes 

 the date and place of his birth and death, with some indication of 

 the position he filled ; then comes a paragraph containing references 

 to biographical notices, followed by one enumerating his works : 

 in some cases further information is given after the name. We 

 may cite as an example of the manner in which the work is carried 

 out, the account of Mazziari, whose Flora Corcircse has been the 

 subject of more than one note in these pages ''' : — - 



" Mazziaki (Domenico), n. Siena intorno 1790: m. Zante 1857 — 

 nel 1815 era iusegnante dei figli del Ministro Medici in Napoli, 

 e fa amico di Tenore e Grussone ; nel 1817 fu professore 

 d'italiano a Corfu, quindi a S. Maura e Zante. Intorno al 1834 

 fu dirigente di un orto botauico, allora esisente in Corfu. E 

 I'autore della Flora Corcirese stampata negli anni 1834 e 1835 

 in Corfu nella Jonios Anthologia, come risulta dalle notizie per 

 me tratte dall' Archivio di Corfu dal gentile sig. Spiridione 

 Zervos ingegnere in quell' isola. — Heafier, Specimen florae crypto- 

 gamte Septem Insularum editum juxta plautas Mazziarianas 

 herbarii Heufleriani. Vindob. 1861-68 (Zool. bot. Gesell- 

 &Qha.ii)— Fritz, p. m'l— Britten in Jour, of Bot. 1883, p. 355— 

 Sacc. in Jour, of Bot. 1894, p. 373— L'erbario crittogamico del 

 Mazziari conservavasi fra le raccolte del bar. de Heufler e del 

 Tommasini." 



Besides the " Eepertorio biografico dei Botanici," which occupies 

 the greater part of the book, we have the bibliography of the 

 botanic gardens of Italy, and a curious chronology of the principal 

 events connected with the progress of botany in Italy, beginning with 

 440 B.C. — " Empedocle di Girgenti espone, prime d'ogni altro, 



♦ Journ. Bot. 1893, 355 ; 1894, 373. 



