﻿mated in 1882 at 725 million hectolitres, valued at more than 

 10,000 million francs and representing the subsistence of 200 

 million human beings." 



No one will be surprised when M. Bourdeau speaks of the culti- 

 vation of cereals as " a first cause and dominant influence in the 

 origin of every system of civilization " (p. 109) ; but it strikes one 

 as more novel when, in his chapter on condiments, he says, " The 

 trade in spices made the fortune of Venice. Later, it was the 

 wish to trace them to their sources and to monopolise the great 

 profits of which the Turkish invasion had deprived the Venetians, 

 that inspired the heroic expeditions of Columbus and de Gama " 

 (p. 102). Englishmen may, perhaps, resent the author's banter, 

 when, speaking of the gooseberry, he says (p. 60), " The English 

 especially set great store by it, because it is one of the few summer 

 fruits that can ripen under the cloudy skies of Great Britain, 

 where, according to Chamfort's mot, there are hardly any ripe 

 fruits except those that are cooked." The book is full of interest- 

 ing information and, if translated, would make a good companion 

 to DeCandolle's Origin of Cultivated Plants. Its botanical nomen- 

 clature is sometimes antiquated, as when the Water-cress appears 

 as " Sisymbrium nasturtium, Lin.," and the potato-disease as 

 " Botrytis infestans"; and there are a good many more misprints 

 than appear in the table of errata, such as the amusing " Acer 

 arietinum, Lin.," for the Chick-pea (p. 72) ; but the most serious 

 defect in the work is the absence of an index. 



G. S. BoiJIiGER. 



ARTICLES IN JOURNALS. 



Bot. Centralblatt. (No. 6). — W. J. Goverts, ' Ueber Quercus- 

 Arten mit offener Spaltung.' — (Nos. 7, 8). P. Klemm, ' Aggre- 

 gationsstudien ' (2 plates). 



Bot. Gazette (Jan. 17). — J. D. Smith, 'Undescribed plants from 

 Guatemala' (2 plates).— J. H. Pillsbury, 'The colour description of 

 Flowers.' — C. MacMillan, ' Archenema, protonema, and metanema.' 

 — A. Schneider, ' Mutualistic symbiosis of algae and bacteria with 

 Cycas remluta: — A. F. Foerste, « Oaks as weeds.* — Id., 'A new 

 compass-plant ' (Aster concolor). — C. DeCandolle, New Meliacea from 

 Mexico. — G. F. Atkinson, « Frost freaks of herbaceous plants.' 



Bot. Notiser (haft. i.). — B. Jbnsson, * Studier ofver algaparas- 

 itisur hos Gunnera.'—V. Magnus, Taphrina Cornucervi.—O. Ekstam, 

 ' Om monstrost utbildade Lalkfjall hos -Lappa minor:— C. O. v. Porat, 

 « Eungsdrstraktens Hieracier.' 



Bot. Zeitung (Feb. 16). — K. Schumann, 'Spross- und Bluthen- 

 entwiekelung in der Gattung Crocus, nebst einigen Bemerkungen 

 iiber die Gipfelbluthen.' 



Bulletin de VHerb. Boissier (Jan.) — F. Crepin, ' Excursions 

 rhodologiques dans les Alpes.' — A. Baldacci & F. Filippucci, 'Con- 

 tribuzione alio studio delle gemme e specialmente di alcune ricerche 



