238 
notice that there are some remarkably fine trees at 
Albury, no doubt due to the soil and sheltered 
situation, a black Italian poplar, for instance, 
being about 150 ft. high, and therefore one of 
the tallest trees in England. The white lime and 
other limes, the London planes and cedars, and 
a special variety, var. alburyensis of the black 
walnut, a specimen of the chestnut oak of North 
America, Quercus prinus, in addition to other 
trees, are worthy of special mention. 
(2) Of Mr. Lowson’s text-book there is not 
much that need be said; it is one of the series 
published by the University Tutorial Press, and 
follows the usual lines of the compressed botani- 
cal text-book. This particular edition has been 
prepared more especially for Indian students, but 
this fact is not very prominent in the text, except 
where the more systematic side of the subject in 
relation to phanerogams is treated. Otherwise, 
both text and figures bear a very familiar, and 
not very inspiring, appearance. 
(3) Messrs. Coghlan and Hinchley are to be 
congratulated on having produced a very useful 
and interesting work on the coconut, which should 
prove of considerable value at the present time 
when so much attention is being directed to the 
cultivation of the coconut palm and the utilisation 
of its products. The book is thoroughly practi- 
cal, and also well illustrated with reproductions of 
photographs, which are explanatory to the text. 
Soil, preparation of the land, seed-nuts, pests, 
copra, and machinery are among the subjects of 
the chapters. Careful estimates are given of the 
profit and loss of coconut planting, from which it 
would seem clear that, provided a suitable site 
has been chosen for the plantation, its ultimate 
success as a paying investment is assured. In an 
interesting chapter on catch crops, the value of 
Coffea robusta is emphasised. Errors appear to 
be few, but one misprint of s. d. for 1. s. in the 
last column of the exchange tables at the begin- 
ning of the book should be noted. 
(4) Mr. Carter’s book is written with the inten- 
.tion of familiarising students of British flowering 
plants and ferns with the genera arranged accord- 
ing to Engler’s system. In dealing with the 
genera of ferns, the arrangement enunciated by 
Bower is followed. 
The characteristics of the natural families are 
set out clearly in detail, and the genera are ar- 
ranged under their tribes in key form. The book 
aims at directing the attention of students to a 
closer study of the genera of plants, a purpose 
which it appears admirably calculated to fulfil. 
(5) Seventy-three photographs, several of which 
are quite pretty, appear to be the raison d’étre of 
“The Story of Plant Life in the British Isles”; 
NOr.2323,, Viol, 02] 7 
NATURE 
[May 7, 1914 
we cannot see otherwise why this discursive 
volume was published. The author in his intro- 
duction is careful to point out the faults which, 
underlie the systems of the great botanists of his- 
tory, and seems to suggest that a study of his own 
work will show the way of salvation. Whether 
the student will really become acquainted with the 
distinctive characters of the different families of 
plants by using this work would seem a matter of 
doubt, but he will find in these pages a consider- 
able amount of miscellaneous information, such as 
the fact that daisies grow in churchyards, that 
there is no need to point out the characteristic 
features of the ivy as ‘“‘any boy or girl can name 
it,’ and so on. A large number of common and 
local plant names are given, which is a feature of 
some interest, and there is a glossary of terms at. 
the end of the volume. 
(6) The Oban district of Calabar, Southern 
Nigeria, has yielded a rich harvest of new species. 
and genera of plants to the indefatigable collec- 
tors, Mr. and Mrs. P. Amaury Talbot. (2fte 
district, botanically, belongs to the Cameroon 
region, and the flora is continuous with that of the 
similar geological country included within German 
territory.. In the British area, however, there is 
a certain admixture of plants from the Gulf of 
Guinea region. The Oban district is‘ densely 
covered with forest, and is the home of a great 
diversity of species of plants; Mr, Talbot con- 
siders there are some four hundred to five. hun- 
dred per square mile. With a rainfall of about 
175 in., and a soil of decomposed granite and 
gneiss, it is scarcely remarkable that the flora 
should be a rich one. A striking feature of these 
forests is the number of cauliflorous trees, many 
of which were previously undescribed, six being 
new species of the remarkable myrtaceous genus 
Napoleona, the flowers of which resemble some- 
what those of the parasitic Rafflesia of the east. The 
collection consists of 1016 species and varieties, of 
which 195 are new, and there are nine new genera. 
The plants have been determined with but few 
exceptions by the staff of the British Museum, 
and the results with various notes by Mr. and 
Mrs. Talbot are presented in the volume under 
review, which form a fitting tribute to the indus- 
try of the collectors. It should be remembered 
that Mrs. Talbot while in the country made a 
remarkable series of water-colour drawings of a 
great number of the plants, and in particular of 
the flowers of the cauliflorous tree, which it is 
to be hoped will soon be published in colour. The 
present volume is illustrated with seventeen plates 
of figures, in which the more striking of the new 
plants are figured. 
The descriptions of new species occupy 119 
