AFRICAN BOTANY. 233 



Flora Capensis : being a systematic desciiption of the plants of the Cape 

 Colony, Caffraria, and Port Nat((l. By various Botanists. 

 Edited by W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, C.M.G., etc. London: 

 L. Reeve & Co. 1897. Vol. vii. part i. 8vo, pp. 1-192. 

 Price 7s. 6d. net. 



The steady progress of two long- suspended works which deal 

 systematically with African plants is a matter for congratulation ; 

 and the various agencies which have brought pressure to bear in 

 order to produce this effect may feel that they have not protested in 

 vain against the delay which had for so long a period obstructed our 

 knowledge of African botany. We have never hesitated to point out 

 the unreasonableness of this delay, and we gladly welcome a return 

 to a more satisfactory state of things. 



The continuation of the Tropical African Flora, like that of the 

 Flora Capensis, begins with the Monocotyledons, three volumes being 

 left for the completion of the Dicutyledons. Dr. Dyer's name ap- 

 pears as editor of the work, as it does on the title-page of the Cape 

 Flora : it is to be hoped that, when the work is completed, some 

 steps will be taken to put this more correctly, as of course in each 

 case the first three volumes of the work appeared very many years 

 before any outcome of Dr. Dyer's superintendence. It is not, indeed, 

 as we remarked on a former occasion, easy to see in what Dr. Dyer's 

 share in the two Floras consists ; in the instalments before us, for 

 example, it seems limited to a note of ten lines on the cover of the 

 Cape Flora and an introduction of two short pages to the first part 

 of the Flora of Tropical Africa. We should have been glad if, in the 

 exercise of his editorial capacity, he had prohibited the eccentricity 

 which has lately characterized Kew nomenclature — we mean the 

 spelling of the adjectival form of proper names with a small initial. 

 This is not only contrary to general practice and the Berlin rules, 

 but, as it seems to us, is also obnoxious to common sense. It is 

 also to be regretted that in two Floras so much akin as those of the 

 Cape and of Tropical Africa, an entirely different arrangement of 

 printing the names of species should be adopted. In the former we 

 have 



^^ Hypodisciis Willdenovia (Mast, in Journ. Linn. Soc. x. 259) "; 



in the latter 



^^ Calathea conferta, Benth. Gen. Plant, iii. 653." 



It is true that in each case the method of printing adopted in the 

 earlier volumes of each work has been followed ; but so many other 

 changes have been introduced, that this might well have been made. 

 The bulk of these two parts in the Tropical African Flora is con- 

 tributed by Mr. Rolfe, who has monographed the Orchidecs, with the 

 exception of Disa and Brownleea, which are by Mr. N. E. Brown. 

 Of the other orders, the Rydrocharidece and Bariuanniacece are under- 

 taken by Mr. C. H. Wright ; the Scitaminece, Iridece, and Aiiiaryllidece 

 fall to Mr. Baker. Mr. Kolfe, whose monograph appears to be very 

 carefully done, describes a large number of new species and estab- 

 lishes a new genus, Fodandria, for llabemiria uiacrandra Lindl. — a 



