222 



NATURE 



[Jan. 3, i; 



THE ORCHIDS OF THE CAPE PENINSULA. 



The Orchids of^ the Cape Peninsula. By Harry Bolus, 

 F.L.S. With Thirty-six Plates, partly coloured. Off- 

 print from the Transactions of the South African Philo- 

 sophical Society, 1888, Vol. V., Part i. (Cape Town, 

 J 888.) 

 "T^HIS," as the author informs us, "is an attempt to 

 A describe the Orchids growing on the peninsula of 

 the Cape of Good Hope ; to give their names and syno- 

 nyms ; to arrange them as far as possible in groups ; to 

 adduce the stations where they have been found, and 

 their further distribution so far as known. To this is 

 added a list of collectors ; and of books and papers 

 already published upon the subject of South African 

 Orchidology." Mr. Bolus's name as an authority on Cape 

 Orchids is already well known through his papers in the 

 Journal of the Linnean Society ; and the thoroughness 

 with which his work has been done is vouched for by 

 the fact that it has occupied a great part of his leisure 

 time for several years, and embodies the results of a 

 comparison of the Orchids of Thunberg's Herbarium, 

 by Mr. N. E. Brown, A.L.S. ; also by the fact that 

 Lindley's Type Herbarium, and the General Herbarium, 

 at Kew, where Mr. Bolus has been staying for several 

 months, have been fully consulted. 



The Cape peninsula is a tract of land about forty miles 

 long, varying in width from about three to eleven miles, 

 and has a total area of 197^^ square miles ; and it is 

 interesting to note that in an area about one-fourth larger 

 than the Isle of Wight, no less than 102 species, belong- 

 ing to ten genera are found, thirty-three of which, so far 

 as at present known, are endemic. The order is con- 

 sidered to take a position the fourth in importance in 

 the flora (after Compositae, Leguminosae, and Ericaceae), 

 and to constitute 58 of the whole. The altitudinal range 

 of the species is very interesting. The greater part of the 

 area in question is occupied by a central mountain range, 

 of which Table Mountain, which attains an elevation of 

 3562 feet, is the highest part. From Mr. Bolus's tables, 

 it appears that fifty-nine species never descend into the 

 plains to a lower elevation than 500 feet, twenty others 

 are always found below this elevation, while the twenty- 

 three remaining ones are indifferent in this respect. He 

 also remarks that fifteen species have a vertical range of 

 from 2000 to 3000 feet, and six species a range of more 

 than 3000 feet. This large vertical range, which is shared 

 in common with many of the flowering plants, Mr. Bolus 

 attributes to the equability of the temperature, and of the 

 moisture of the atmosphere at different elevations, owing 

 to the close proximity of the sea on nearly every side. 



One of the species is of such great beauty that there 

 has been some danger of its ultimate extinction ; on 

 which points the following will be read with interest. 

 " The peerless Disa iinijiora is in its glory on the rivulets 

 of Table Mountain in February. . . . This beautiful 

 flower is the object of universal admiration, and the name 

 which has been given to it, the ' Pride of Table Mountain,' 

 indicates the honour in which it is held. It is, indeed, 

 the queen of terrestrial Orchids in the southern hemi- 

 sphere, as Cyprlpedium spectabile may be said to reign, 

 though with less magnificence, in the northern. . . . 

 It is still abundant on Table Mountain, although of late 



years large quantities of the tubers have been annually 

 exported to Europe, and much needless destruction, 

 arising from wasteful gathering by unskilled hands, 

 resulted. But the summit of the mountains being Crown 

 land, the Government has recently intervened, and re- 

 stricted the removal of tubers within reasonable limits, 

 so that, if this supervision be continued, there will be 

 little reason to fear the extinction of this truly noble 

 species." 



The thirty-six, partly coloured, plates, which represent 

 the rarer or least known species, are drawn by the author, 

 and the dissections and botanical details are admirably 

 portrayed ; though in some cases the outline only is given, 

 and a little shading would have enhanced their effect. 



Respecting the structure and homologies of Orchidea?, 

 largely cited from Darwin, and with a plan of the flower 

 from the same source, it may be pointed out that the so- 

 called union of the two lateral stamens of the outer staminal 

 whorl with the median petal, to form the lip, was dis- 

 puted, and, I think, satisfactorily disproved, by Crueger ; 

 a view which has been since confirmed by Dr. Masters, in 

 the case of Cypripedium. The papers in question appear 

 to have been overlooked, but the oversight detracts 

 little from the value of this admirably executed work. 

 To those who wish to procure copies, the omission of 

 the publisher's name is unfortunate. Messrs. West, 

 Newman, and Co., of Hatton Garden, E.C., are the 

 printers, and may be able to supply the work. 



R. A. ROLFE. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Carl von Linne's ungdomsskrifter. Samlade af Ewald 

 Ahrling, och efter bans dod med statsunderstod 

 utgifvna, af K. Vetenskaps-Akademien. Forsta serien, 

 fdrsta haftet. (Stockholm : P. A. Norstedt & Soner. 

 1888.) 



This is the first part of the youthful writings of Linnaeus, 

 collected by the late Dr. Ewald Ahrling, and published, 

 under a State grant, by the Royal Swedish Academy of 

 Science. The work as a whole is to be divided into two 

 series of several parts each, the first series including a 

 record of the life of Linnteus up to the year 1734, 

 with botanical addenda. The second will contain 

 the author's account of his journeys in Lapland (1732), 

 hitlierto printed only in English ; in Dalabergslagen 

 (1733); in Dalecarlia (1734); and notes on his sojourn 

 abroad (1735). In the first series are the following 

 purely botanical works : — " Hortus Uplandicus," after 

 Tournefort's system, from the original in the possession 

 of the Linnean Society ; " Hortus Uplandicus," after 

 Tournefort's system, with an addendum, and a new divi- 

 sion of Umbellatae (1730), from the original in the Leufsta 

 Library ; " Hortus Uplandicus," after the author's method 

 the sexual system (1731), original in possession of the 

 Rev. J. Johansson, at Ifvetofta; and " Adonis Uplandicus," 

 after the sexual system (1731), original in the Leufsta 

 Library. 



The majority of readers will find that the most interest- 

 ing of the papers in the part before us is the great 

 botanist's diary. The original of this, wholly in the hand- 

 writing of Linnaeus, is one of the two autographs in 

 the possession of the Linnean Society. It contains 

 thirteen closely-written pages, and we must conclude, 

 from a remark in the diary, that it was written between 

 1730 and 1735. To judge from difference of writing and 

 ink, additions were made at a later date. 



The diary is followed by " Catalogus Plantaruii 



