;i4 



NA TURE 



[August 2, 1906 



.4 NEW FLORA OF GREECE. 

 Conspectus Florae Graecae. Auctore E. de Haldcsy. 

 3 vols. Vol. i., pp. 825; vol. ii., pp. 612; vol. iii., 

 pp. 520. (Leipzig : VV. Eng-elmann, 1900-1904.) 



SINCE the publication of Sibthorp and Smith's 

 great work, " Prodromus Florae Graecae," more 

 than a century ago, a large number of individual 

 workers have published floras of certain parts of 

 Greece, and have described a very considerable number 

 of new species. But no work dealing with the 

 Grecian flora as a whole has — since Sibthorp and 

 Smith — been attempted until now. The author of the 

 present work is to be congratulated upon the success 

 he has achieved. His book is most useful to every 

 systematist who has to deal with European plants. 

 He himself had travelled and collected in Greece, and 

 had written on the botany of Greece. To the results 

 of his own observations he has utilised the data 

 furnished by previous authors, whose names and 

 works are duly tabulated at the end of the third volume. 

 The area treated in the " Conspectus " is Greece 

 (as politically understood), as well as Epirus and 

 Crete. The three volumes contain 825, 612, and 

 520 pages respectively. The species are accurately 

 described, except in the case of the more well-known 

 plants, of which bibliographical references and syn- 

 onyms, as well as habitats, only are given. The 

 larger genera have a key at the commencement of 

 each to facilitate the " running down " of the species. 



Practically the sequence of the genera is that of 

 Bentham and Hooker's" Genera Plantarum," although 

 some of the suborders of those botanists are given 

 independent rank. For instance, Fumariaceffi is 

 separated from Papaveracese, Oxalidaceae from Ger- 

 aniaceee, Rosaceae (as understood by Bentham and 

 Hooker) is split up into Amygdalaceae, Rosaceae, and 

 Pomaceje. Silenaceae (Caryophyllaceae of most sys- 

 tematists) has Alsinaceae separated from it. 



It may be of interest to note the relative space 

 occupied by some of the larger natural orders. Com- 

 positte heads the list with 245 pages, Papilionacese 

 comes next with 125, Gramines and Labiatae have 120 

 each, Umbelliferae 88, and Scrophulariacese 74. The 

 largest genera in point of number of species are as 

 follow. To show at a glance the relative propor- 

 tions of the Greek to the general European flora as 

 given in Nyman's " Conspectus Florae Europseae," the 

 number given by Haldcsy is quoted first, and then 

 the total number for the whole of Europe from 

 Nyman. Of Centaurea, Greece boasts 71 species, the 

 whole of Europe 171 ; Trifolium 61 species against 

 T08, Euphorbia 44 against 107, Campanula 43 against 

 94 ; Allium has more than half the total number 

 of species possessed by the whole of Europe, 41 

 against 78 ; in Verbascum Greece claims a still larger 

 proportion, 39 species against 54. In Carex Greece 

 has 36 species, the European flora altogether 163. 

 Vicia has 35 species; Nyman enumerates 61 for 

 Europe. Astragalus has 33 Greek species against 120 

 for the whole of Europe, and Hieracium has only 20 

 species against 1S5. 



It is worthy of mention that the origin of the 

 NO. 1918, VOL. 74] 



horse-chestnut is here definitely settled. In most 

 books Asia is given as the native country of Msculus 

 hippocastanum ; in others it is stated with equal cer- 

 tainty that its native country is uncertain or un- 

 known. Sibthorp records it as occurring in a wild 

 state near Pindus. Nyman, in a note in his " Con- 

 spectus Floras Europsese," says, " Indicatur a Sib- 

 thorpio in Pindo, monte illo Graec. bor. sed post eum 

 a nullo alio ibi inventa est." Haldcsy, however, quotes 

 Haussknecht as having found it truly wild in this 

 and other localities (see Mitth. thiir. hot. Ver. 1886, 

 p. 71). It was, however, Heldreich (in Sitzungsb. 

 hot. Ver. Brandenb., 1879, p. 139, and 1882, p. 20) 

 who first brought forward sufficient evidence to prove 

 that the real home of the horse-chestnut was in 

 the mountains of Northern Greece. N. 



SUBTERRANEAN GEOGRAPHY. 

 Hohlenkunde, mit Berucksichtigung der Karstphdno- 

 mene. By Dr. W. von Knebel. Pp. xvi + 222. 

 (Brunswick : Vieweg und Sohn, 1906.) Price 5.50 

 marks. 



THIS book is one of the handy monographs in the 

 collection styled " Die Wissenschaft," which 

 corresponds well in range with the English " Inter- 

 national Scientific Series." It may be described as a 

 clear introduction to the study of caves ; but it is not 

 so inspiring as the subject deserves. We cannot 

 think, for instance, that it would enable anyone to 

 realise the attraction that the hidden depths have had 

 for certain specialists. There is a tendency in the 

 book to classify phenomena, which may be of service 

 to those who fully grasp their meaning; and perhaps 

 we expect too much from an author who is so emin- 

 ently exact. Somehow we do not quite see before us 

 the great gottffrcs leading vertically down to unknow n 

 waterways ; nor, on the surface, the real desolation 

 of the Karstland, the white dust of waterless days, 

 the fantastic rocks standing up in moonlight like 

 ghosts upon the slabs of enormous tombs, the sudden 

 edge of the ravine, and the clear green river sunk 

 half-a-mile below. Well, if we are to study " Hohlen- 

 kunde," the emotions are for other moments. Yet 

 what an emotional subject it all is ! 



Dr. von Knebel's account (p. 57) of the subter- 

 ranean connection between the Danube at Immen- 

 dingen and a tributary of the Rhine in the Hegau 

 leaves, let us admit, nothing to be desired; and there 

 are plenty of local touches here. Of equal interest 

 is the description (p. 107) of the flow of sea-water into 

 th". limestone near Argostoli in Kephalonia, whereby 

 two mills are kept going in the stream. A diagram 

 shows us how this may be accounted for by the outflow 

 of lighter brackish water into the sea at another point, 

 this water being the result of the mingling of a fresh- 

 water spring with the marine flow underground. We 

 learn also how a fresh-water spring emerging under 

 the sea may draw in sea-water from some point above 

 it, through a cavity partly filled with air. 



.■Xmong many useful discussions, we note (p. 26) 

 that dolomite is stated to be equally soluble with calcite 



