382 THE SPECIES OF FICUS. 



Viola lactea, Cerastium pumilum, Sagina subulata, JRhanmns Frangida, 



Erythraa pulchella, and Juncus Gerardi. The type is good and 



clear, but the body of the book is unnecessarily extended by too 



wide space and margins. A ^ 



L ° Arthur Jdennett. 



The Species of Ficus of the Indo-Malayan and Chinese Countries. 



Part II. Synscia, Sycidium, Covellia, Eusyce, and Neornorphe. 

 By George King, M.B., P.B.S., &c, Superintendent of the 

 Boyal Botanic Garden, Calcutta. London: L. Beeve & Co. 

 1888. Annals of the Boyal Botanic Garden, Calcutta, vol. i., 

 part, 2, pp. 67-185, tt. 87-125. 



The first part of this fully-illustrated monograph of the Asiatic 

 Figs was noticed in some detail in this Journal (1887, pp. 218-220], 

 and the basis of Dr. King's classification is given in the same 

 volume, page 189. There is little to add now, except congratulations 

 on the completion of so important a work, and on the excellence of 

 the plates, executed by native artists, for botanical purposes. More 

 exact delineations of specimens it is impossible to have. Through- 

 out this part, too, the dissections are given on the same plate as 

 the representation of the species. Altogether there are descriptions 

 of 207 species, and a notice accompanies this part to the effect that 

 a supplement will follow containing descriptions and figures of the 

 new species recently collected by Mr. H. 0. Forbes in New Guinea. 

 This supplement will also contain a memoir, by Dr. D. D. Cun- 

 ningham, on the fertilization of Ficus Boxburghii Wall. A photo- 

 graph of a tree of this species in full fruit in the Calcutta Garden 

 is given as a frontispiece to this volume. It is one of a number 

 which produce their fruit in large clusters on the trunk, and in this 

 the fruit lies on the ground, heaped up, as it were, around the base 

 of the trunk. In some other species, such as F. hypogaa, F. gro- 

 carpa, and F. conglobata, the long ropes of fruit insinuate themselves 

 more or less into the ground, — some become quite subterranean, 

 and the fruit ripens in this situation. The very common Ficus 

 hispuia, better known under the name of F. oppositifolw, sometimes 

 bears receptacles both in the axils of the leaves and in clusters on 

 the trunk. 



To give some idea of the difficulties of the genus Ficus, it may 

 be mentioned that Dr. King has seven pages devoted to doubtful 

 and imperfectly-known species, and in these seven pages he deals 

 with upwards of 130 names. This number includes some, indeed 

 many, that are definitely reduced to accepted species, and there 

 seems no reason why they should have been included here. On 

 the other hand, the majority have proved indeterminable to Dr. 

 King, who has seen nearly all the existing types, and most of them 

 will in all probability always remain so. W. B. H. 



New Books. — S. E. Maurin, 'Formulaire de l'Herboristerie ' 

 (Pans, Meau; 12mo, pp. 575; 4 fr.)— .P. Boery, <Les Plantes 

 oleagineuses ' (Paris, Bailliere, " 1889 " : 8vo, pp. 160: 2 fr.).— *• 

 Sulzberger, 'La Bose : histoire, botanigue, culture' (Namur 

 Charher: 8vo, pp. 148: 10 plates, 20 maps).— E. Laborie, 'he- 

 cherches sur l'anatomie des axes floraux ' (Toulouse, Durtend : «vo, 



