^°'- f^^;^"-] Book Notices. 



203 



to which would be suitable species to obtain. It is greatly to 

 be regretted that the author, in publishing so-called common 

 names for most of the plants listed, has failed to acknowledge 

 the work in progress for the last two years by the Plant Names 

 Committee of the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, which, 

 under the chairmanship of the Government Botanist, is working 

 in conjunction with the Government Botanists of New South 

 Wales, Tasmania, &c., in order to try and secure uniformity 

 in vernacular nomenclature. Surely such names as " Prickly- 

 leaved Paper-bark Tree Myrtle " for Melaleuca siyphelioides, or 

 " Lance-leaved Swan River Red Pea-flower Bush " for Br achy - 

 sema lanceolatiim, cannot be in popular use, or have any claims 

 to simplicity ; while '' Fringed Violet " for Arthropodmm 

 paniculatum, though shorter, is certainly misleading. To list 

 such plants as Anagallis Centunculus, " Minute Pimpernel " ; 

 Accena ovina, " Sheep's Burr " ; Alchejnilla vulgaris, ''' Lady's 

 Mantle," and many others of similar character as Australian 

 plants worthy of cultivation is surely the height of absurdity. 

 Had the list of plants, which extends over 180 pages, and 

 includes about 3,600 species and varieties, been cut down to 

 one-fourth, and some remarks given as to the treatment and 

 uses of the more promising of these, then plant-lovers would 

 have had a valuable work of reference. Seeing that some 

 three hundred illustrations are included, one might hope for 

 some help from them ; but, with the exception of a few 

 characteristic palms, tree-ferns, the Bunya-bunya, and a few 

 other trees, the majority of the illustrations are too indefinite 

 to be of any value — in fact, if many of the titles were trans- 

 posed nobody would be any the wiser. Who would recognize 

 the Blackwood, Acacia melanoxylon, and Bursaria spinosa from 

 the illustrations on page 257 ? while that of Acacia Bailey ana 

 might easily pass for that of a double-flowered Spiraea. The 

 illustrations, as process engravings, are well done ; but, being 

 taken from specimens in the Melbourne Botanic Gardens, are, 

 in many cases, surrounded with so much extraneous vegetation 

 that the tree or shrub it is desired to illustrate is lost in a hazy 

 mass. Not a single illustration is given of any Australian 

 flower, though we have, belonging to our endemic plants, 

 flowers which will bear comparison with any in the world for 

 beauty of form, &c. The eucalypts, of which Australia is the 

 home, are represented by a series of pictures which are little 

 better than caricatures. The need of a book to fill the position 

 indicated on the title-page undoubtedly exists, and from the 

 author's long experience it was confidently expected that §uch 

 a work would have resulted on the present occasion. The 

 volume has been well printed and produced, and we regret 

 that publishers of such high repute as Messrs. Whitcombe and 



