HANDBOOK OF THE IRIDEX, 155 
the American Cipuree, with a similar rootstock, but the perianth- 
tube obsolete, and usually more than one flower to the spathe ; and 
th rm 
the second being distinguished from the first by its distinct 
perianth-tube. The genus Keitia, queried by Bentham, which was 
founded by Regel on a species from Natal, is now identified with 
Eleutherine plicata Herb. 
The third tribe, Bins with spicate, non-fugitive flowers agape | 
in each spathe, corresponds exactly with that of Bentham 
includes Gama hid Tes and their ailian, with a regular en Pe 
and simple style-branches, the Watsonia group with unilateral 
stamens and bifid style-branches, Acidanthera, Tritonia, &c., with a 
subregular periauth-limb, and the irregular Gladiolus group. It 
will thus be seen that Mr. Baker has abandoned the serial arrange- 
ment of his Systema Pe eee which preceded that of the Genera 
Plantarum. He then adopted three series—Izxiee, Irideea, and 
Gladiolee, the first characterised by a regular perianth with 
similar inner and outer whorls and equilateral stamens, including 
therefore Jvia and its near allies and the crocuses, and thus scarcely 
comparable with the present tribe of the same name. 
ax, who elaborated the Iridacee for Engler and Prantl’s 
Pflanzenfamilien in 1887, has an arrangement very like that of 
Bentham; of his three sections, Ixioidee corresponds exac ws to Izviee, 
while the sub-tribe Crocee is separa as a dis section, 
Ge ocoidee; the yaaa of Sisyrinchiea, and the Moreee, a united 
n a third, [ridoi 
n the “ile ey dewdbook the same plan is followed as in those 
dontithis with the Fern Allies, Amaryllidea, and ethene the 
similarity extending to the convenient size and neat green binding 
of the three volumes. Unfortunately we may push the compariso 
further. Mr. Baker i rapid ove 
have made a pie ifr oe when reviewing his Handbook 
of Bromeliaceea. The species of Marica and rapes avait described 
by Martens and Galeotts (Bull. Acad. Roy. Brux. x.) from specimens 
collected by the latter in Mexico, are not fnelatied though cited by 
Hemsley in the Biologia Centrali-Americana, where it is stated that 
the hg Ar (S. affine) is referred to iridifolium (presumably by 
M self) in the a Herbarium. There are some names 
oO 
look for citations of M. Gandoger’s innumerable names—life is too 
short and space too valuable. gain, it wo e well in cases 
where “the name of a figure is corrected, espec cially in so well 
known and universally used book as the Botanical Magazine, to say 
exactly what the deae mg represent. Thus we have on page 38, 
* Tris aphylla L. n t. Bag,” and on the next, “ J. lurida Ait., 
Bot. Mag. t. 986, non 699 ”; but what then are these Bot t. Mag. 
figures? There are a few mistakes in numbers*in the references, 
