214 THE JOUBNAL OF INDIAN BOTANY. 



advice to those who contemplate such work. He writes as an enthusiast, 

 and no one not an enthusuiast could stand the exhausting work of standing 

 for hours in a paddy swamp and in the blazing sun. But probably Mr. 

 Rangaswami would rather say, that no one who has experienced bhe engros- 

 sing interest of such work could fail to become an enthusiast. He touches 

 on practically every process, sowing, transplanting, labelling, roguing, and 

 the storing of the seed, and the paper should be read by all who take up this 

 very useful and interesting line of work. 



P. F. F. 



Books 



The Flora of the Nilgiri and Pulney Hill tops, — being the com- 

 moner wild and introduced flowering plants of the hill-stations of 

 Ootacamund, Kodaikanal and Kotagiri, Vol. Ill including the country 

 round Coonoor and down to 5,000 ft. By P. F. Fyson, with illustra- 

 tions by Mrs. Fyson and others. Madras, at the Government Fress, 

 Bs. 15/6. 



This volume is supplementary to the two which appeared in 1915 and 

 dealt with the plateau down to 6,500 ft. It contains not only the species of 

 the wider area but illustrations of many of those described before but not 

 figured. It is however not merely a supplement, for the Natural Orders and 

 most of the genera and species are given again with reference to the page or 

 figure in the other volumes. The first volume was not by any means a com- 

 pilation of previously published work ; it was based on the author's own 

 collections, supplemented by those of Sir Alfred Bourne, and others, and was 

 conspicuous for evidence of real research, the correctness of the naming 

 being authenticated by reference in most cases to the actual type sheets 

 of the species. The present volume which has been produced in India is 

 necessarily without these references. Another difference is in the absence 

 of the short notes on the origin of the names or the natural history of the 

 species which added so much to the interest of the first volume. It contains 

 a few corrections of errors, as Vernonia Bourneana for V. cormorinensis ; and 

 changes of name, in which the author has taken advantage of the published 

 parts of Gamble's Flora of the Madras Presidency. Chief of these that we 

 notice are Schefflera for Heptapleuron, Centella asiatica for Hydrocotyle as., 

 Korthasella japonica for Viscum Jap., and Asparagus Fysoni for A. subu- 

 latus; and in a note on botanical nomenclature the author explains the 

 reasons for changes of this sort, a note which will be apprec ated by those 

 to whom such changes might otherwise appear unnecessary and irritating. 



Of the 296 full page illustrations most are by the author's wife and are 

 remarkably natural and true to the fresh plant. Among much that is good 

 we would specially point to her Compositae and Loranthaceae, and to the 

 author's Gramineae and Cyperaceae, in all of which : the dissections are also 

 good. 



The printing of the letter press is up to the high Standard of Vol. I, and 

 though the lines of the figures are sometimes a little thick, this is perhaps due 

 to the stout paper on which they are printed. But the book has suffered 

 from the author's inability to see it through the press, there being several 

 misprints in the latter half, and several of the illustrations being upside down 



