CURRENT LITERATURE 
BOOK REVIEWS 
Vegetation der Erde 
TX. AFRICA 
As previously noted in these pages,t ENGLER has in contemplation an 
elaborate phytogeographic treatment of tropical Africa. The second volume 
of this series was the first to appear, and it is now followed by the first volume, 
which is issued in two parts.? The first volume is devoted to as much detail 
as is now possible to a consideration of the vegetational conditions of Africa. 
This volume makes it particularly clear that Africa is no longer the “unknown 
continent”; particularly is this true, so far as tropical Africa is concerned, 
of the German possessions, each of these being well delineated phytogeograph- 
ically by maps in colors. Most of the volume is taken up bya presentation of 
the chief phytogeographical subdivisions of Africa, which, as here treated, 
are (r) Mediterranean Africa with the bordering parts of the Sahara, (2) trop- 
ical East Africa, (3) the southwestern region of winter rain, (4) the summer 
rain region of West Africa, (5) Macronesia. This portion of the work is richly 
and beautifully illustrated by photographs of desert landscapes in North 
Africa, cuts of representative Saharan plants, and by similar photographs and 
cuts in much greater number from tropical East Africa, including especially 
Abyssinia, the Somali Peninsula, and German East Africa. The account 
of the summer rain region of West Africa also is very full and is finely illus- 
trated, especially in the portions dealing with the German territory. The 
work closes with a treatment of the general geographic conditions (including 
temperature and precipitation data, and an account of the various types of 
soils), a short description of the regions at different altitudes, a brief survey 
of the plant formations, and an account of the floral constituents and the general 
floristic relationships of Africa. Under the last head many genera are tabu- 
lated as to their affinities, whether pantropic, paleotropic, endemic, ¢tc. 
Also there is a short account of the geological development of the present 
vegetation. 
XI. THe BALKAN COUNTRIES 
Apamovié, who for many years has published important papers dealing 
with the vegetation of Servia and neighboring lands, has now issued a mono- 
* Bot. Gaz. 50:468. 1910. 
* Encter, A., und Drupe, O., Die Vegetation der Erde. IX. ENGLER, A., Die 
Pflanzenwelt Afrikas insbesondere seiner tropischen Gebiete. Bd. I. pp. xxviii 
1029. _maps 5. pls. 47. figs. 708. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann. 1910. 
(subscription M 45). 
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