NOTICES OF BOOKS AND MEMOIRS. 91 



Hih 



called Kosteletslaja acuminata) ; of this little seems to be known, 

 and the remark " patr. ign." appended to its description in DC. 

 Prod., i. 447 would, if nothing further were ascertainable, have 

 justified its omission from Mr. Hemsley's enumeration ; but there 

 is a good specimen in the British Museum from Pavon, labelled 

 " Hibiscus acuminatus de Mexico," which accords well with the 

 description, and leaves no doubt as to locality^ A type specimen 

 of Moricand's Hibiscus lavatcroides, which Mr.Hemsley queries as 

 from Berlandier, is in the British Museum (Berlandier, 127). 

 Some of Cavanilles' types, too, should have been referred to ; and 

 a large number of Mexican plants with MS. names, from Buiz and 

 Pavon, should have been determined. We have not tested the 

 accuracy of the book, so far as its quotations are concerned, but we 

 do not find in it Shla almfolia, Malachra fasciata, nor (as already 

 mentioned) Urena Swartzii, all of which are given as Mexican by 

 Presl ; while other Mexican plants enumerated by the author just 

 mentioned are not given for Mexico by Mr. Hemsley. 



There is no necessity to pursue this investigation further ; the 

 criticisms already made upon Mr. Hemsley's treatment of the 

 Makacea; might be carried out with regard to other Orders, and wall, 

 we think, be admitted to justify the position we have taken with 

 regard to the neglect of the British Museum collections. We trust 

 that in the future parts of the work this deficiency will be 

 remedied, and that there will be as little delay as possible in 



ftrrninW.;™ Otie imnnrt.a.r,i. r>nnfvihiltimi to OU1* knowledge of the 



Wester 



J. B. 



Methodik der Species beschreibung und Ridms. Monograph* de) 



einfachbliittrigen und krautigen Brombeeren, dV. Von Dr. Otto 



Kuntze. Leipzig, A. Felix. 1879. 



It should be the object of everyone monographing a group 

 of plants not only accurately to ascertain the structure, and, as far 

 as possible, the delimitation of species, but also to examine the 

 genetic bond uniting them more or less continuously into a series. 

 For this to be done thoroughly it is necessary that the entire lite- 

 history of each species should be studied, so that each may anord 

 grounds of comparison with the rest. Unfortunately this great 

 task has yet to be undertaken. Numberless memoirs of general 

 interest have been given to the world, but none of them— at least 

 none of those denoted to Angiosperms— record the study ot a 

 series of species constituting an order or a genus from the sowing 

 of the seed to its maturation. Occasionally indeed we are presented 

 with phylogenetic schemes, but their scope is too wide to admit any 

 cognisance of species. Therefore it is that the present work, 

 wherein an endeavour is made to solve the riddle of the evolution 

 of some of the brambles, is a matter of great satisfaction to ns, 

 although the method pursued is one of inspection only, and as sucii 

 is open to the charge of empiricism. 



