LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. lxxix 
Flora Brasiliensis which he edits. Of this costly work the parts 
published within the last twelvemonth comprise Celastrinee, Tlicineee 
and Rhamnew, by Dr. Reissek, Serophularinee, by Dr. J. Schmidt, 
and Dalbergiee and Sophoree, completing my Papilionacee. Chile 
has also distinguished herself in Natural History. The Flora 
Chilena, completed at Paris a few years since for the Chilian 
Government by M. Claude Gay, has been followed by various papers 
by Dr. Philippi, Professor of Zoology and Botany in the University 
of Santiago, and Director of a Museum which he appears almost to 
have founded there. Amongst these, his Travels in, and Flora and 
Fauna of the Desert’ of Atacames, which, although published in 
Germany, was written at Santiago, deserves especial notice. The 
flora of the remainder of South America is only known from the 
collections of travellers published in Europe, amongst which M. 
Weddell has completed the second volume of his valuable Chloris 
Andina, and Karsten the first of his Flora Columbiana. The latter, 
however, is not a Flora in the ordinary sense of the word, but a 
selection of new and little-known species, splendidly illustrated. It 
is only to be regretted that the beautifully executed and accurate 
analyses and careful descriptions should not have been accompanied 
by a little more literary research, for the proportion of already 
known genera or species given as new is greater than might have 
been expected. We had hoped also, ere this, to have had the first 
volume of Planchon and Triana’s Flora of New Granada; but the 
promised aid on the part of the Government of that country has 
been delayed, although I trust not definitively stopped, by domestic 
revolutions, 
Under the head of Faunas and Floras I would add a few words 
on the subject of illustrations of the results of scientific exploring 
expeditions. In these expeditions, undertaken at great cost, the 
labours of the zoological and botanical collectors who accompany 
them are often most liberally encouraged, and on their return home 
funds are supplied for the publication of the results, but not un- 
frequently upon terms which interfere much with their practical 
utility. It would seem as if the object were not so much to add to 
our knowledge of the productions of the countries visited, as to make 
a vain boast of the number of new genera or species discovered, or 
of the specimens collected. It is seldom that in these great expe- 
ditions there are not some countries more completely explored than 
had ever been previously the case, and whose faunas and floras, if 
rendered complete up to the present state of science, are great desi- 
derata, whilst specimens gathered during a few days’ stay at some 
g2 
