l82 



NA TURE 



[December i6, 1909 



connection with tlie origin of the Old Red Sandstone, 

 which lie attributes to formation in a lagoon or in a 

 sea like the Baltic, which had some slight connection 

 with the open ocean. His maps of the distribution 

 of land and water in successive systems are excellent 

 diagrammatic sketches, and those of Europe give the 

 chief facts of its complex history. Prof. Haug is an 

 expert on the geological history of France, and he 

 clearly explains the many important differences be- 

 tween the Armorican region and the Central Plateau ; 

 he shows these two areas by different hachurcs in 

 three out of his four structural maps of Europe, and 

 it is only in that of the Gothlandian (Silurian) that 

 the two regions arc shown as sharing the same geo- 

 logical conditions. J. \V. G. 



SXSIKM.VIIC BO'/'.LVr. 

 (i) lUtistrations of Cyperaceac. Prepared under the 

 direction of the late Charles Baron Clarke, F.R.S. 

 144 plates, with explanation. (London : Williams 

 and Norgate, 1909.) Price 12s. 6d. net. 



(2) Das Pflanzenreich. Regni Vegetahilis Conspeclus. 

 Edited by .A. Engler. 38 Heft, iv, 20. Cyperaceae- 

 Caricoidcac. By Georg Kiikenthal. Pp. 824. 

 (Leip;!ig : W. Engelmann, 1909.) Price 41.20 marks. 



(3) Das Pjlanzeiireich. Regni Vegetabilis Conspectus. 

 Edited by .\. Engler. 3q Heft, iv, 83. Phyiolac- 

 caccae. By Hans Walter. Pp. 154. (Leipzig : 

 W. Engclmaiin, 1904.) Price 7.80 niiirks. 



(i) \A/^' hope, Mr Clarke, that you will live a very 

 VV long time! " Mr. C. B; Clarke was fond 

 of quoting this remark make to him by a well- 

 known botanist, Mr. Henri Baillon, if we remember 

 aright, who appreciated his careful work on the 

 Cyperaceae, a difficult family of plants, and one of 

 which a good monograph was much needed. Un- 

 fortunately, Mr. Clarke did not live to complete the 

 monograph to which he devoted so much time during 

 the last twenty-five years of his life, and in connection 

 with the preparation of which he had visited, or re- 

 ceived plants from, most of the important botanical 

 collections. The work was left in manuscript which 

 proved too extensive for immediate publication, and 

 botanists must for the present be satisfied with 

 excerpts of the descriptions of new genera and species, 

 together with a skeleton of the author's arrangement, 

 which have been published in the Kew Bulletin 

 (Additional Series, viii.). For particulars of synonymy 

 and details of geographical distribution, reference 

 must be made to the manuscript which is preserved at 

 Kew. It is to be regretted that it was found im- 

 practicable to render accessible by means of publica- 

 tion the full results of the work of so close and careful 

 a student of so difficult a family. It is true, as 

 Mr. Clarke himself was wont to observe when re- 

 proached with delay, that much of the work had 

 already been published in the important floras of 

 various parts of the world in connection with which 

 he was invariably laid under contribution for the 

 elaboration of the Cyperaceae; such, for example, as 

 the " Flora of British India," the " Flora of Tropical 

 Africa," and others; but the magnum opus which 

 NO. 2094, VOL. 8?] 



should correlate the parts and supply a complete 

 account of the family is wanting. 



The volume now under review comprises a series of 

 144 plates prepared by Mr. Clarke to illustrate the 

 monograph, many years ago, when the plan of 

 arrangement had been determined, as well as the 

 representative and typical species of each genus. 

 They have been drawn by various artists — Mr. N. E. 

 Brown, Mr. Charles Fitch, and Miss M. .Smith; most 

 have been reproduced by the collotype process, but 

 some by lithography. They are remarkably clear. A 

 characteristic feature is the representation on a large 

 scale of dissections of the spikelets and flowers, with 

 diagrams illustrating arrangement of parts, and 

 enlargements of the fruit — an important diagnostic 

 character in the Cyperacese. Facing each plate is an 

 explanatory page of text indicating in many cases 

 the actual specimen from which the drawings were 

 made, such as R. Brown, n. 6020; Burchell, n. 7892. 

 The whole forms an invaluable series of detailed 

 drawings illustrating the floral morphology of the 

 genera and species of Cyperaceae. Dr. B. D. Jackson, 

 who is responsible for the production of the volume, 

 refers in his preface to the generosity of Miss Clarke, 

 the sister of the author, to which the issue of the 

 plates is due. 



(2) Georg Kiikenthal has the reputation of a 

 careful worker on the section of Cyperaceae, a 

 systematic account of which is embodied in this 

 ponderous Heft of the Pflanzenreich — the most 

 substantial from the point of view of size that has yet 

 appeared. In the general account which precedes the 

 special descriptive portion, the author refers to the 

 division of the order into subfamilies based on the 

 presumed cymose character of the spike in many of 

 the genera ; two subfamilies were at first recognised — 

 -Scirpoideae, with racemose spikelets, and Caricoideae, 

 in which the spikelets were of a cymose nature. Sub- 

 sequently, however, the author was led to restrict the 

 Caricoideae to Carex and a few allied genera, and it 

 is in this restricted sense that the term is employed 

 in the present monograph. As thus limited, the sub- 

 family contains four genera — Schcenoxiphium, a small 

 South African genus of six species, one of which is 

 also represented on the highlands of east tropical 

 .Africa ; Cobresia, for which the author prefers the 

 more correct to the more familiar spelling, Kobresia 

 (the genus was named by Willdenow in honour of 

 Paul de Cobres) ; L'ncinia, and the huge genus Carex. 

 The author follows Mr. Clarke in including Elyna and 

 Hemicarex in Cobresia, and arranges the twenty-eight 

 species in the four sections suggested by Mr. Clarke. 

 The chief interest of the book, however, is naturally 

 centred in the exhaustive systematic revision of Carex, 

 of which just upon 800 species are recognised. A 

 true estimate of the value of Kiikenthal's work on this 

 genus can only be ascertained by experience in its 

 use in the field and in the herbarium ; but it is at any 

 rate a great thing to have a carefully elaborated 

 monograph with full specific descriptions and detailed 

 accounts of synonymy and geographical distribution. 

 We have long waited for a successor to Boeckeler's 

 monograph for purposes of arrangement of the 

 species. 



