Bihlingrnphiad Notices. 517 



tlic plants found in the Madeiran Isles which belong to the Thai <inii- 

 florcus Orders. The author seems to have spared no labour requisite 

 to render his book complete. It is arranged somewhat on the plan 

 of Babington's ' Manual of British Botany,' although usually rather 

 fuller in detail than that work, and containing many more critical 

 remarks than were there requisite. The European botanist will find 

 much to study in it ; and even the especially British student cannot 

 fail to rise with profit from its perusal. According to the views of 

 the lamented Professor E. Forbes, Madeira forms one of the remains 

 of the ancient great Atlantic continent, and accordingly possesses 

 a part of its flora. This book tends to show that those views were 

 well founded ; for a very large ])roportion of the plants here described 

 arc also natives of the south-east of Europe, and not a few of them 

 inhabit England and Ireland. 



Mr. Lowe divides the island into four zones relatively to elevation. 

 As might be expected, we find very few British plants noticed as 

 characteristic of the lower two of these zones, which extend from the 

 level of the sea to an elevation of 2.500 feet, and "below whose upper 

 limit snow never lies longer than a few hours." Viola odoruta, 

 Fragaria vesca, Ayrimonia Eupotoria, Lobelia urens, Brachr/pocVnun 

 pinnatuiii, Triodia decumbens, Arrhenatiiemm avenaceuni, Agrostis 

 can in a, and Ceterach officinuvmn may be mentioned, and all of them 

 seem to be confined to the second zone. 



Water-plants are of course almost altogether wanting in a country 

 where all the streams are torrents. 



Famaria capreolata is not included in the flora, but is represented 

 by the F. 7nuralis (Sond.), which is probably confounded with it in 

 Britain and other western parts of Europe. F. Vaillantii is perhaps 

 incorrectly combined with F. puvcijiora : in England, they certainly 

 seem to be distinct. 



The name of Viola sylvestris (Lamk.) is adopted for the V. sylva- 

 tica (Fries), with the remark, that the latter name is very inapjn'O- 

 priate in Madeira. Unfortunately, Lamarck's plant is the V. canina, 

 and therefore his is not "the original name" of Fries's plant. 



The Tamarix antjlica (Webb) is rejoined to the T.gallica (Linn.), 

 with the remark, concerning the hypogynoiis disk, that it is " nor- 

 mally 8-10-lobed, the lobes united in pairs, often indistinct or 

 obsolete." 



We are surprised to find that the only Pink is BiantJnis prolifer. 

 Silene maritima (Wither.) is said to pass "by a thousand inter- 

 mediate gradations into" (S. influta. 



The name Speryularia is employed in place of the older term, 

 used generically, oi Lepir/onum. Many botanists seem determined 

 to overlook the fact that Persoon (who is always quoted as the au- 

 thority for it) did not consider his group Speryiilaria as a genus, and 

 that Wahlenberg first })laced the plants in a distinct genus, calling 

 them Lepigonum. According to the recognized laws of nomenclature, 

 his name ought therefore to be adopted. 



The Geraniitmjjwpureiun (Vill.) is separated from G,7?o5er#2awM>«, 

 and the G. Robertianum ft. (Smith) and G. JRaii (Liudl.) quoted as 



