NEW PUBLICATIONS. 187 
they frequently give occasion for disssension and quarrels. As a proof of the 
value or consideration attached to this fruit, it may be mentioned that, in order 
to annoy their adversaries, the Kukata tribe of the north-west, famous for their 
atrocity and witchcraft, often threaten to burn or otherwise destroy the nundo 
bushes. As only few gum-trees grow in Port Lincoln, they have but little of 
the edible gums upon which the Adelaide tribes live almost exclusively during 
the summer months; what they get they collect from the acacia-trees, which 
however grow but sparingly, yielding very little gum.— Wilhelmt, in Transac- 
tions of the Royal Society of Melbourne. 
NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
Flora of Edinburgh; being a List of Plants found in the vicinily of 
Edinburgh. By J. H. Balfour, Professor of Botany; assisted by J. 
Sadler, Vice-Secretary of the Botanical Society. 174 pp. 12mo. 
Edinburgh: Black. 1863. 
This * Flora? contains a list of species inhabiting a circle having a 
radius of about twenty-five miles from Edinburgh as a centre, and fur- 
nishes a very full statement of the places where they may be found. It 
does not enter upon critical questions relative to the characters of the 
species, nor their distinctness ; neither does it point out with very 
great exactness (except as far as giving the names of localities) the 
relative frequency of the species; nor do we easily learn from it in 
how far the more common kinds extend throughout the country or are 
absent from certain parts of it. The country is not divided into dis- 
tricts, as is now usual in local Floras, nor are even the names of the 
counties appended to those of the places mentioned. In general 
there is no account of the character of the soil, if porous or retentive. 
In short, the book is intended solely as a guide to the collecting student 
of Edinburgh, and as such it will doubtless be found very useful. That 
being its object, the author is probably wise in not extending its bulk 
and price by the addition of the information which we have intimated 
as absent. Nevertheless this absence causes it to take rank, not with 
the modern local Floras, but with the older works of like intent with 
itself. We must express our hope that it is to be regarded as the fore- 
