JUNE 27, 1912] 
NATURE 
after his return to Europe, and when he eventually 
returned, he had the good sense to draw 
liberally on the co-operation of specialists for the 
naming of those of his plants which he could not 
readily determine himself during a few months’ 
stay at Kew. 
Thus this catalogue of plants of Sao Paulo, 
which is worked into a key after the model 
of Schinz and Keller’s ‘‘Excursionsflora der 
Schweiz,” may be relied upon as fairly correct, 
and as it contains nearly goo species of phanero- 
gams and vascular cryptogams, also as not very 
far from complete. It is written in terse, technical 
Latin, and occupies pages 1tog-261. There are 
some 40 figures interspersed through the text of 
this part. They are plain, clear, outline draw- 
ings; but the reason of their selection is not 
always obvious, and, on the whole, one can only 
regret that there are not more of them and in the 
right places. 
This florula of Sao Paulo is preceded by chap- 
ters on the history of the town of Sao Paulo, the 
climatology, orography, and geology, the plant 
formations and cultivations, and the phenology of 
the district, and a special description of the 
Jaragua, an isolated mountain 1000 metres high, 
and about 15 kilometres to the north-east 
of Sado Paulo, and therefore actually out- 
side the district. Most students will find 
these chapters the most interesting part of 
the book. They contain a clear account of the 
vegetation, its formations and floral composition, 
and the external factors governing it, and are well 
supported by some twenty good reproductions of 
photographs, showing characteristic types of 
scenery, and by a coloured map of the district. 
Not the least merit is in the brevity and concise- 
ness of the descriptive text, which occupies space 
equivalent to not more than twenty-four pages out 
of 100, the rest being taken up by unavoidable 
lists, illustrations, and a very extensive biblio- 
graphy. The last might, indeed, have been 
curtailed a great deal, and, to the advantage of 
the appearance of the text, relegated to the end 
of the book. ; 
It cannot be said that the flora of Sao Paulo 
contains any features of engrossing interest either 
as to wealth or specialisation. 
primary forest of Araucaria brasiliana, all the 
woods of the district are of secondary growth, and 
more or less of the nature of xerophilous or hygro- 
philous bush; but the principal formations are 
savannah (campos) and high- and low-moor. The 
latter two are the subject of an especially interest- 
ing comparison with analogous types in Switzer- 
land. O. STAPF. 
NO. 2226, vol. 89] 
Apart from a small | 
PHY TOGEOGRAPHY. 
(1) Pflanzengeographische 
deutschen Landschaft. 
Pp. vi+274. 
Teubner, 1911.) Price 5 marks. 
und Hypothese,” xiii. 
(2) Die Pflanzenwelt Dalmatiens. By Prof. 
L. Adamovié. Pp. vi+137+72 plates: 
(Leipzig: Dr. Werner Klinkhardt, 1911.) Price 
4.5 marks. 
(3) Einfithrung in die Tropenwelt.  Erlebnisse, 
Bechachtungen und Betrachtungen eines Natur- 
Wandlungen der 
By Prof. H. Hausrath. 
Berlin's) “Ba: 
“Wissenschaft 
(Leipzig and 
forschers auf Ceylon. By Dr. K. Guenther. 
Pp. x+392. (Leipzig: Engelmann, 1911.) 
Price 4.8 marks. 
(1) HE phytogeographical changes in 
German scenery since the glacial periods 
and how these were wrought is the subject of Dr. 
Hausrath’s investigations. He adopts Graebner’s 
classification of plant-formations and discusses 
their composition, developments, and the increase 
and decrease, as the case may be. Geological 
changes are only taken into account in so far as 
they have exercised an important influence on the 
character of the vegetation. Unfortunately the 
author does not give a summary of the results 
of his investigations; but the further he carried 
them the stronger was his conviction, he states, 
that man has been the principal agent in bringing 
about the changes which have taken place within 
the current geological epoch. Much of the space 
is devoted to this aspect of the question, and the 
history of the cultivation of the land from Neolithic 
times to the present day is briefly sketched, and its 
influences traced. 
The changes in forest areas within historic 
times, from the Roman domination to the nine- 
teenth century, are highly interesting and instruc- 
tive, especially in relation to the changes effected 
during the nineteenth century and since 1878. 
The decrease of the forest area in the whole of the 
districts of Germany since 1878 is given as 
164,611°3 hectares, and the increase during the 
same period as 287,553°7- Contrary to what might 
have been expected the forest area increased during 
the Thirty Years’ War. The total forest area 
of Germany in 1878 was 13,872,92671 hectares, 
and in 1g00, 13,995,808'5. There are also inter- 
esting statistics of the peat moors of Germany. 
The total area is estimated approximately at 
2,300,000 hectares and the average thickness at 
3 metres, thus giving a stock of 69,000,000,000 
cubic metres. The production of coal in Germany 
in 1909 amounted to 175,000,000 tons, the heating 
value of which is calculated as equal to 350,000,000 
