222 NATURAL SCIENCE. March. 



bulbs crowding the entire surface of the driest and most rocky grounds 

 while the air was filled with the fragrance of their strange and elegantly 

 shaped flowers. In spite of this promising description Huassa-huassi 

 has, so far as we know, never since been visited by any botanist, nor 

 has M. uniflora again been gathered. The species has never been in 

 cultivation, and until Miss Woolward made it a subject of study 

 there was no specimen in the country. The graceful drawing of the 

 plant which accompanies the text is taken from the better of two of 

 Ruiz and Pavon's specimens preserved in the Museum at Madrid ; a 

 third, consisting of two leaves and a bud from the same collection, was 

 given by the Director, Dr. Colmeiro, to Miss Woolward, and by her 

 to the Botanical Department of the British Museum. The fourth, 

 and the only other specimen known, is now in the Boissier 

 Herbarium at Chambesy. It formed part of a valuable collection of 

 dried plants belonging to Pavon, discovered after his death by 

 Mons. Reuter, hidden away in a garret in Madrid. Renter purchased 

 the collection for the Boissier Herbarium, of which he was then 

 curator, and the orchids were submitted for examination to the late 

 Professor Reichenbach who redescribed M. uniflora in " Bonplandia " 

 (1856). Besides the small specimen from Madrid, Miss Woolward 

 has also given to the British Museum the original sketch of the larger 

 Madrid specimen, and one of the plant in the Boissier Herbarium. 



Part V. also contains plates and descriptions of two Brazilian 

 species not hitherto figured, and quite unknown in Europe. They 

 were found by Senhor Barbosa Rodriguez, Director of the Botanic 

 Gardens at Rio Janeiro, to whom the authors are indebted for the 

 originals of the plates and the information in the text. 



Several other species are also figured for the first time, and the 

 Part opens with a splendid double plate of the gorgeous M. chimcera. 



Zittel's Handbook of Pal.eontology. 

 The recent appearance of the concluding fasciculus of Professor von 

 Zittel's " Handbuch der Palaeontologie," coupled with the circum- 

 stance that the Council of the Geological Society have, most worthily, 

 just bestowed their highest honour — the Wollaston Medal — on its 

 learned author, affords us a fit opportunity of congratulating both the 

 Professor himself and his enterprising publishers on the conclusion of 

 their labours. As we have from time to time noticed some of the 

 fasciculi which have appeared since this Journal came into existence,^ 

 while the limits of our space entirely forbid any detailed notice of the 

 earlier volumes, we must content ourselves on this occasion with 

 offering our most unqualified congratulations on the completion of the 

 work. 



It has been frequently remarked that Science has had many 

 martyrs, and in our day the chief of these are unquestionably the 

 compilers. Compilation is, indeed, work which, owing to the vast 

 flood of scientific literature now poured forth without any system of 

 publication, and in a confusing Babel of tongues, becomes year by 

 year more necessary and more difficult. If there are few men who 

 are willing to abandon original research, with its bracing stimulus of 

 effort and novelty, for the duller plodding work of preparing sum- 

 maries, there are still fewer capable of accomplishing this in a 

 satisfactory manner, more especially in such a difficult science as 

 palaeontology, where so much is uncertainty and speculation. 



1 See Natural Science for March and September, 1893. 



