July 14, 1898] 



NATURE 



251 



species of mammals, nearly three times as many birds, 

 considerably over four times as many batrachia, and 

 about eight times as many reptiles as the whole of 

 Europe. The moths known to be found in Europe are 

 3040 in number, those of India 5600 ; and in this case there 

 is no doubt that the Indian list is far from complete. 



The interest attaching to the botany and zoology of 

 India makes the circumstance noteworthy that two im- 

 portant works published by order of the Government of 

 India, and at its cost, have been completed within the 

 last six months. These works are the " Flora of British 

 India" and the vertebrate section of the "Fauna of 

 British India." In neither case is the work exhaustive, 

 but each deals with the most important group of plants 

 or animals respectively, the " Flora " containing descrip- 

 tions of all flowering plants, and the " Fauna " accounts 

 of all vertebrate animals. It is scarcely necessary to say 

 that flowering plants form a much larger proportion of 

 the whole flora, than vertebrate animals do of the entire 

 fauna ; but some progress has already been made with 

 an addition to the " Fauna " as originally planned, 

 and with the description of the huge mass of Indian 

 Invertebrata. Except that the plants of the Malay 

 peninsula are included in the " Flora," whilst the animals 

 are omitted from the " Fauna," the British India of the 

 two works is the same, and includes all India proper 

 with the Himalayas, Ceylon, Assam, and Burma. 



The "Flora of British India" is a work to which Sir 

 J. D. Hooker has devoted many years of his life, and it is 

 chiefly written by him, portions having been contributed 

 by other botanists, amongst whom are Mr. Thiselton- 

 Dyer, Mr. C. B. Clarke, Dr. Maxwell T. Masters, Mr. 

 J. G. Baker, and the late Dr. T. Thomson and Dr. T. 

 Anderson. The undertaking may be said to have com- 

 menced originally by the publication of the first (and 

 only) volume of Hooker and Thomson's " Flora Indica" 

 in 1855 ; but the present work, which is on a smaller 

 plan, has been brought out in parts, of which the first 

 appeared in 1872, and the last, containing the index, in 

 November 1897. The whole consists of seven thick octavo 

 volumes, comprising altogether over 5000 closely printed 

 pages, and containing descriptions of 14,520 species. 



The "Fauna of British India" is on a different plan, 

 and the completed portion, containing the Vertebrata, 

 consists of eight octavo volumes and of over 4100 pages. 

 Of the eight volumes, one contains the Mammals (402 

 species), four the Birds (1626), one the Reptilia (534) and 

 Batrachia (130), and two the Fishes (1418). The whole is 

 edited by Mr. W. T. Blanford, who is also the author of the 

 volume of Mammals and of two volumes of Birds, the re- 

 maining two volumes of the latter being the work of Mr. 

 E. W. Gates ; whilst Mr. G. A. Boulenger has contri- 

 Ijuted the part containing the Reptilia and Batrachia, and 

 the late Dr. F. Day wrote the account of the Fishes. 

 The first part appeared in 1888, and the last volume of 

 Birds hasjust been issued from the press. 



As already mentioned the " Fauna," as originally pro- 

 jected, was intended to contain an account of the Verte- 

 brata alone, and this is now complete. But some years 

 ago the Government of India authorised an extension of ! 

 the work, on the same plan and under the same editor, 

 to certain Invertebrate groups, with the result that up to 

 the present time four volumes on Moths, by Sir G. F. 

 Hampson, have been published, with descriptions of 

 5618 species ; and one volume on Bees and Wasps, by 

 I olonel C. T. Bingham, containing descriptions of 995 

 species. Thus at present the series of the Fauna com- 

 prises thirteen volumes. No intimation has been given 

 of any additional parts being in preparation. It may 

 l)e hoped, however, that further additions will be made, 

 and that, so far as is practicable, both the Flora and Fauna 

 may be completely described. A thorough knowledge of 

 the productions of India is as important for economic 

 reasons as for scientific inquiry. 



NO. 1498, VOL. 58] 



A. KERNER F(9.V MARILAUN. 



AITE regret to announce that Dr. Anton Kerner voi> 

 » * Marilaun, Professor of Botany in the University 

 of Vienna, died suddenly on June 21 in that city from- 

 apoplexy. He was born at Mautern, Lower Austria, 

 on November 13, 183 1. He acquired at a very early age 

 a considerable knowledge of the flora of his native 

 province, and had already a good reputation as a 

 botanist when still a student of medicine in the Univer- 

 sity of Vienna. After having taken his degree as Dr. 

 Med. et Chir., he practised for a short time in one of the 

 Vienna hospitals ; but finding the medical career not to- 

 his taste, he accepted a professorship in the Josefs 

 Polytechnicum at Ofen, Hungary. In 1861 he was called' 

 to the chair of Botany in the University of Innsbruck,, 

 which he occupied till 1878, when he succeeded Eduard 

 Fenzl as Professor of Botany and Director of the Botanic 

 Garden and Museum at Vienna, in which position he 

 remained up to his death. In 1875 he was elected a 

 member of the Imperial Academy of Science of Vienna ;. 

 he received the order of the Eiserne Krone in the follow- 

 ing year, in recognition of his achievements as a teacher 

 and man of science, and was knighted in 1877, when he 

 added the title " von Marilaun " to his name. When 

 Eichler, the eminent morphologist, died, the University 

 of Berlin invited him to the vacated chair ; but Kerner, 

 who had always been a staunch Austrian, declined. 



Kerner's principal claims as one of the most prominent 

 botanists Austria has produced, rest chiefly on his re- 

 searches in phyto-geography and biology — this term to be 

 understood in the narrower sense, in which it is so often 

 used in Germany. Trained from early youth to observ- 

 ation in the field, thoroughly familiar with the Central 

 European flora, gifted with a keen eye for the salient 

 features of vegetation and, at the same time, with an 

 analytic mind ready to break up the general aspect in 

 which a given vegetation presents itself into its ele- 

 ments, he was eminently fitted to develop that particular 

 branch of phyto-geography which deals with the associ- 

 ation of plants in so-called plant-formations. This doc- 

 trine had just then assumed a definite shape through 

 Grisebach's investigations, although it may well be 

 traced back to Alexander Humboldt. In his book, 

 "Das Pflanzenleben der Donaulander" (1863), Kerner 

 applied with great success the new method to the vege- 

 tation of the Eastern Alps and a large part of Hungary, 

 which he had explored in numerous excursions. In a 

 contribution to " Die Oesterreichisch-Ungarische Mon- 

 archie im Wortund Bild," which was published under the 

 auspices of the late Crown Prince Rudolf, he worked 

 out in a general way the distribution of the various floras 

 within the monarchy, their principal subdivisions and 

 their history, and he added soon afterwards an excellent 

 map, under the title " Florenkarte von Oesterreich- 

 Ungarn." If he was early a master of descriptive 

 phyto-geography, he was by no means indifferent ta 

 the historical side of the science, as his paper, " Bei- 

 trage zur Geschichte der Pflanzenwanderungen" (1867), 

 in which he sided with Forbes and against Grisebach 

 and his creation theory, an interesting essay, " Studien- 

 uber die Flora der Diluvial-Zeit in den ostlichen Alpen " 

 (1888), and several more show. Of his biological re- 

 searches the most remarkable are those dealing with the 

 relations of flowers and insects. 



His splendidly illustrated book, " Schutzmittel der 

 Bliithen gegen unberufene Gaste" (1876), was translated 

 into English ("Flowers and their unbidden Guests"),, 

 and, no doubt, gave a powerful impetus to the develop- 

 ment of one of the most fascmating chapters m 

 biology. In fact, I believe, nothing appealed more to 

 his constitution of mind than investigations of this kind ;. 

 for he was endowed with a wonderful amount of imagin- 

 ation which, in that inexhaustible field, found ample 



