1153 



herbage which shall fill the soil with a network of roots, have proved 

 utterly futile. How valuable, then, would be a carefully prepared 

 paper on this subject, confined even to the British Isles, giving the 

 result of a series of experiments, with the names of each parasite and 

 its foster parent, and fully describing the mode and conditions of 

 parasitism. 



' Palm-trees of the Amazon, and their Uses. By Alfred Russel 

 Wallace.' London: Van Voorst. 1853. Post 8vo. 138 pp. 

 Text, 48 Plates. Price 105. Qd. 



This is an admirable little book, creditable alike to the author and 

 the artist. Mr. Fitch, long and favourably known as a botanical 

 artist, has here excelled himself; his designs of the palms are really 

 beautiful, and show how much may be done in a small compass. 

 There is here an unusual combination of botanical accuracy with 

 artistic and picturesque effect. Mr. Wallace is comparatively unknown 

 as an author, but not as a naturalist. His sufferings and losses on 

 board the unfortunate ' Helen,' having been detailed by himself, in a 

 recent number of the ' Zoologist,'* have become familiar to all who 

 take an interest in the well-being of those adventurous and energetic 

 men who, as Natural-History collectors, have, during the last few 

 years, added so enormously to our knowledge of the productions of 

 distant countries. The object of the work before us is fairly and 

 lucidly explained in the author's Preface, as below : — 



" The materials for this work were collected during my travels on 

 the Amazon and its tributaries from 1848 to 1852. Though princi- 

 pally occupied with the varied and interesting animal productions of 

 the country, I yet found time to examine and admire the wonders of 

 vegetable life which everywhere abounded. In the vast forests of the 

 Amazon valley, tropical vegetation is to be seen in all its luxuriance. 

 Huge trees with buttressed stems, tangled climbers of fantastic forms, 

 and strange parasitical plants everywhere meet the admiring gaze of 

 the naturalist fresh from the meadows and heaths of Europe. Every- 

 where too rise the graceful palms, true denizens of the tropics, of 

 which they are the most striking and characteristic feature. In the 

 districts which I visited they were everywhere abundant, and I soon 

 became interested in them, from their great variety and beauty of form, 



* Zool. 3641,No. CXIX. 



