Bibliographical Notice. 467 
male individuals of Pilostyles grow so abundantly upon the 
branches of the Adesmia in Chili and on those of the Astragalus 
in the east, the female plant still remains unknown; there is 
here a gap to be filled up, in order to complete the description 
of this curious genus. Perhaps, according to Dr. Miller, the 
ring of papillze surmounting that of anthers in both species may 
represent a row of aborted ovaries, as would seem to be indicated 
by a certain analogy of position with the flowers of the Aroidez. 
Here we have, therefore, an oriental and alpine species, 
Pilostyles Haussknechtii, coming to complete a genus hitherto 
known only from South America, and of which all the species, 
singularly enough, are parasitic upon shrubs of the family 
Leguminose. Hitherto we did not know, either in Europe or 
in Asia Minor, any Rhizanth,—the Cytinus, another plant para- 
sitic upon the roots of the Cisti in the Mediterranean region, 
being arranged in a neighbouring family on account of its stem 
(which bears several moncecious flowers), its bilocular anthers, 
and other important characters. 
It would have been easy for me to enlarge this list of disjointed 
species—that is to say, species growing in a botanical region 
very distant from that in which the rest of their genus or family 
live; but, without going in search of other little-known ex- 
amples of this curious fact in botanical geography, we are 
acquainted with some which surprise us the less because we 
have them always under our eyes. Is it not singular, for ex- 
ample, that we find in the floras of Southern Europe only a 
single Myrtle and a single Laurel, whilst all the rest of the very 
numerous families to which these shrubs belong inhabit the 
tropical or subtropical countries of both continents? If, how- 
ever, we consider that in the Tertiary period the Myrtles and 
Laurels were diffused in Central Europe, we get a glimpse of an 
explanation, being led, as has been so well shown by M. Alph. 
Decandolle in his ‘Géographie Botanique,’ to assume species of 
different antiquities, and to hope that, as our knowledge of the 
floras of preceding geological epochs becomes more complete, it 
will by degrees make us better understand the present distribu- 
tion of plants. 
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 
The Geology and Scenery of the North of Scotland; being Two 
Lectures given at the Philosophical Institution, Edinburgh. 
With Notes and an Appendix. By James Nicot, F.R.S.E., 
F.G.S., &. 12mo. Edinburgh, 1866. 
Proressor Nico has three chief objects in these Lectures,—first, 
to elucidate the close and very evident connexion of the geological 
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