206 



Flora de Chile. Por Dr. C. Reiche & Dr. F. Johow. Bajo la 

 co-operacion del Prof. F. Philippi. Santiago, 1895-6. 8vo. 

 Parts I. & II. 



It is now nearly sixty years since the first volume of Claude 

 Gay's Flora of Chili was published, consequently the present work 

 is one which is much needed, and one which ought to be of great 

 service to students of the flora of this highly interesting country. 

 Both the authors are previously known to botanists. Dr. C. Reiche 

 has given us a careful revision of the Chilian species of Viola and 

 of O.ralis* and Dr. Johow has quite recently published his 

 Esiudios sabre la Flora de las I.das de Juan Fernatide;:, containing 

 an account of the vegetation of these well-known islands, this latter 

 being specially interesting, inasmuch as nearly half of the flora is 

 endemic and contains many remarkable species. 



The territory included by the present " Flora de Chile " extends 

 from 18'' S. lat. to Cape Horn, and from the Pacific Ocean to the 

 adjoining Republics ; it will thus be seen that the country included 

 varies, from possessing a climate where there is practically no rain- 

 fall at all, to one where the annual fall is considerable. The vege- 

 tation in the north is very limited, and we can gain a fair idea of 

 the curious character of the flora of these desert districts from the 

 account of Dr. F Philippi's travels in the province of Tarapaca,t and 

 from his father's, Dr. R. Philippi's, Florida Atacamemis, in which 

 latter work the author enumerates scarcely four hundred species. 

 In some of the valleys, for instance, near Copiapo, years pass over 

 without rain falling at all ; but dews are frequent. Farther south 

 showers are only occasional, sometimes after an interval of three 

 years ; in the vicinity of the river Biobio, Dep. Conception, rains 

 fall regularly in winter, and south of this river the rains are 

 irregular but fall heavily. Trees are absent in the north, but the 

 southern forests contain a variety of excellent timber. The 

 authors of this Flora have been fortunately enabled to work 

 through the material collected by the Drs. Philippi in the National 

 Museum, without which, indeed, the work would have been im- 

 possible. This can be easily seen by glancing at the Catalogue 

 issued by Dr. F. Philippi in 1881, | w^hich contains an enumeration 

 of 5358 vascular plants, a large percentage being his own species 

 or those of his father. 



The first part of the present work carries us to the end of 

 CapparidacetB, the second part from Flacourtiacete to Coriariacea ; 

 thus included in the volumes we have several genera treated of, 

 which are peculiarly interesting in Chili for one of two reasons. 

 Either, as in the genus Cristaria, in Malvaceae, nearly all the 

 species are endemic, or, as in lianunculus, Viola, Silene, Cardamine, 

 Malcaslriiiii, and O.calis, the genera are widely difi'used, but a large 

 proportion of the Chilian representatives are endemic. 



* Viola Chilenses. Engler's Jalirhuch, xvi. pp. 405-452. " Zur Kenntniss der 

 chilenischen Arten der Gattung O.ralis." Engler's Jalirhuch, xviii. pp. 259-305. 

 t Verzeichniss aiifder Itodiehene der Procinzen Antofagasta vnd Tarajjcica. 1891. 

 \ Cataloriui Fldiitiiruin rasritlimim Cltilenstitnt. Dr. F. Philii^pi. 1881. 



