356 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
surprise of every one familiar with the enormous mass of materials 
which had to be consulted, must be that so few references and synonyms 
have been forgotten. In hastily glancing through the pages, we 
noticed, however, a few which may perhaps find a place in the supple- 
naent. The name for the Rosaceous genus RJiapldoleph^ should have 
given way to Opa^ Loureiro's second species being identical with R. 
Indica, Acicalyptus^ amongst Myrtacese, should have been merged 
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into Calyptrantlies^ from which it in no respect diffei^s. Cracca^ 
Benth., has been named Benthamantha by Alefeld (1862), the 
Linucean name Yicia having to give way to Rivinius's Cracca, restored 
by Godron and Greuier; but all these are mere trifles, which do not 
affect tlie general excellency of the book. 
An Illustrated Key to- the Natural Orders of British Wild Flowers. 
Compiled and Illustrated by John E. Sowerby. London : Van 
Voorst. 8vo. 42 pp.^ 9 coloured plates. 
The object of this w^ork is " to give students of our native flora some 
insidit into the leadin*^ characteristics of the Natural Orders of British 
Wild Flowers; and while the descriptions of the Orders, taken princi- 
pally, with permission, from Professor Babington's excellent * Manual 
of British Botany,' leave little or nothing to be desired in that respect, 
it is trusted tliat the figures may go some way towards cariying out 
the illustrator's idea. To have extended the illustrations to the genera 
would have made the work too costly for the purpose for which it was 
intended." 
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With every wish to deal leniently with an author who has done 
good work in his time, and fully bearing in mind that his 'Illustrated 
Key' is intended merely for popular uses, we think that Mr. Sowerby 
would have done better not to have brought out the present work. 
The object it aims at, " to give some insight into the leading charac- 
teristics of the Natural Orders " by means of these illustrations, is 
not attained. We get scarcely more than a glimpse of the habit of 
a species, to say nothing of genus and Natural Order. To make the 
student acquainted with " the leading characteristics " it would have 
been necessaiy to exhibit them, but this has not been done in most 
instances. To go no further than Rauwiculacea^ : the character, 
taken from Babington, informs us that the Order has "Sepals 3-6; 
petals 5 or more, rarely 0; stamens usually many; anthers aduate, 
