TBANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. — DEPT. ZOOLOGY AMD BOTANY. 587 



nature of one of our colonial floras than of ita present form, for the cost of the 

 present superb work is such as to place it beyond the means of any but the most 

 wealthy. The plates too, which add so largely to the cost of the present work, 

 woul<i not be needed. 



11. Leaying- the ' Flora of Brazil ' by yon ftlartius, and turnin|? to the western side 

 of the Soutli American continent, we have from the pen of Fr. Philippi an 

 extremely yuluable catalonue of all the plants which are known to gTow in Chili, 

 together with a revision of their synonyms and a statement concerning the geo- 

 graphical range of each species. This catalogue, like Nyman's ' Conspectus Florpe 

 Europoeffi,' will render the writing of a future flora of Chili a comparatively easy 

 task. Such a flora is greatly needed, for not only is Gay's out of print and very 

 scarce, but it has also become antiquated. 



These, I think, are the chief floras, or special aids to new floras, which have 

 appeared during the last eight years, and I pass ou now to the sixth and last head. 



6. Detached and miscellaneous specific descriptions. 



It A'.-ould be impossible for me to enimierate even the titles of all the papers that 

 have been written on systematic botany in the diflferent transactions and journals of 

 the various learned societies, and I shall therefore content myself with mentioning 

 some few of those which I consider most interesting. 



First : In the ' Transactions of the Linnrean Society,' Mr. Bentham, in his revision 

 of the sub-order Alimosere, has gi^en us another of those beaixtifully complete 

 reviews of a most difficult group of plants, for which he is so celebrated. Like all 

 his works of this kind, he presents us not only with descriptions of all the genera 

 and species, but he also contrasts the characters on which the former are founded, 

 in such a way as to leave those who study his works perfectly clear as to the 

 principles by which he has been guided in arriving at a determination as to what 

 shall be sufficient or insufficient for the formation of his genera and sub-genera. 

 Under each species he has also given us a complete account of its geographical 

 distribution ; and he has added extensive lists of all the numbers, which have been 

 distributed with the dried specimens of the better known collectors. This last 

 addition is, for those who have the arrangement of herbaria to superintend, of very 

 great -salue, for it not unfrequently happens that a specimen which may exhibit 

 many useful and important points, may also just be wanting in some particular 

 character, without which its right genus or species cannot be determined. The 

 quotation of the number overcomes the diflSculty, and tluis makes the partially 

 imperfect specimen of very considerable service. In another volume of the same 

 Transactions, Professor Oliver and Colonel Grant have given lis an account of all 

 the species which formed the collection made by the latter gentleman, on his 

 celebrated expedition with Captain Speke, through that portion of Central Afi'ica 

 which lies between Gondokoro, Victoria N'yanza, and Zanzibar. This account is 

 accompanied by 136 plates, containing the portraits of about 140 new or in- 

 teresting species which had not been previously figured. This is without doubt 

 the most extensive addition to om- knowledge of the flora of Tropical Africa which 

 has been made for many years, and which, with Professor Schweinfurth's labours, 

 has done more than any other work to give us an insight into the vegetable riches 

 which are yet in store for us in Central Africa. 



I may mention also the following papers of considerable interest which have 

 been printed in the Linntean Society's Transactions: — 1. A report, by Mr. J. G. 

 Baker, on some new monocotyledonous plants, from Welwitsch's 'Angolan Her- 

 barium.' 2. A review of the ierns of Northern India, by Mr. C. B. Clarke. 



Turning from the ' Transactions ' to the ' Journal of the Linnrean Society, we have 

 several excellent papers, by Mr. Baker, on many of the genera belonging to the 

 natural order Liliace». We have also from the same botanist an enumeration of 

 all the known species of Iridacefc, together with descriptions of such as have not 

 hitherto been described. In the sixteenth volume of the same journal we have a 

 long and most useful paper by Mr. Ball, entitled Spicilegiu7n Flora Maroccana, in 

 which all the plants known to grow in the territory of Morocco have been carefully 



