482 SYNOPSIS DER MITTELEUROPAISCHEN FLORA. 



The author says he has followed Otto Kuntze's method of 

 dealiug with forms which are distinguished according to diflterent, 

 non-correlative characters, and they are treated seriatim, each 

 series corresponding to a different principle of division, a method 

 which appears to us highly artificial, and tending to an undue 

 multiplication of varieties and subvarieties. A good deal of the 

 complication thus introduced into the letterpress might have been 

 obviated by a clavis of species preceding the descriptive text. This 

 might have been drawn up on a merely practical basis with a view 

 to naming, while the sequence of the descriptions of the species 

 would indicate their phylogenetic relations. If it was, however, 

 desirable to combine a synopsis of the phylogenetic relations with 

 the clavis, then the distinction at least of collective species and 

 species xar' eIo^*)!- might have been easily expressed in the clavis 

 itself. 



Another drawback of a technical kind to the work is the 

 frequent use of abbreviations which are all but unintelligible, at 

 least for those who use the work mainly for reference. No doubt 

 we shall get a table of explanations in a later part, but for the 

 present we must content ourselves with three lines on page 3 of the 

 wrappers. In many cases the student will have to accept the 

 method of abbreviating followed in the Si/nopsis as well as he can, 

 by making himself familiar with its peculiarities. On page 41 we 

 find, for instance, among the synonyma of Aspidinm Braunii 

 quoted, 'M. ac. £. J3. Koch, Syn. ed. 2, 977 (1845)." This is 

 meant for " Aspidinm acideatum e. Braunii, Koch, &c." To find 

 that out we have to go back to page 37, where we find the name 

 Aspidinm acideatum. the first time printed in full. Or, to quote 

 another example of inconvenient abbreviations, we find on page 41, 

 " Christ, a. a, 0." To get at the " a. 0.," or locus citatus, we 

 have to turn back, and after having come across the same reference 

 not less than twelve times, we find it at last on page 37, in the very 

 succinct form " Christ, Schw. BGr.," which means " Christ, in 

 Ber. Schweiz. Bot. Ges." This extreme conciseness saves, of 

 course, a sheet or two, but this slight increase in the bulk of the 

 work would have obviated the loss of time and the confusion now 

 entailed on the student. In any case, references to a locus citatus 

 should in no case go back beyond the page or the paragraph which 

 contains them. A mysterious asterisk after each species or sub- 

 species, often with one or more lines, is, so I am privately told, a 

 very ingenious means, indicating the distribution within the area 

 of the Synopsis ; but there is nowhere an explanation in the two 

 parts published. 



These technical shortcomings, the blame for which has probably 

 to be apportioned to some extent to the publishers, will certainly 

 be regretted by many a student. Such are, however, the merits of 

 the contents that he will gladly, though with a sigh, put up with 

 them. The descriptions are, on the whole, short, clear, and in 

 exemplary German ; the differential characters are emphasized by 

 spaced letters ; the distribution within the area as well as without 

 is indicated in a more general way in the case of widely distributed 



