PRODROMUS FLOR^ BRITANNIC^ 379 



detailed description of each, with its distribution and vernacular 

 name or names. All this is excellently done, the descriptions, 

 while thorough, being clear and not too long. The arrangement, 

 it should be noted, is that of Professor Engler's Synopsis. 



Several appendices add to the book's value : thus we have a 

 short history of botanical discovery in Egypt ; an informing essay 

 on the phytogeography and geology, including climatology, of the 

 country ; a tabular view of the distribution of Egyptian plants ; a 

 list of species commonly cultivated ; and a glossary of technical 

 terms. As regards phytogeography, five botanical regions are 

 recognized : the Mediterranean Coast Region ; the Nile-Delta 

 Eegion, with four Sub-regions ; the oases of the Libyan Desert ; 

 the Desert Eegion, also with four Sub-regions ; and the Eegion of 

 the Eed Sea. 



In their preface Professors Ascherson and Schweinfurth state 

 that Dr. Muschler's list is not quite complete, some recorded 

 species having been overlooked. Without going more deeply into 

 the matter than opportunity allows, we cannot say to what extent 

 this remark applies. 



In writing the book our own language has been preferred to 

 French, the result being on the whole satisfactory, though the 

 text would have been improved here and there had the sheets 

 been revised by an English botanist. A little more care in 

 correcting the proofs, too, would have been advisable ; we allude 

 especially to the various ways in which the titles of works are 

 quoted and the names of authorities for species given ; in ten 

 cases also the authority for the genus has been omitted. We 

 should like to have found an introductory key to the Natural 

 Orders, and a short prefatory statement relating to the botanical 

 regions, for it is somewhat disconcerting to be faced with a long 

 string of leaded letters indicating those regions, and to have to go 

 for an explanation nearly to the end of the second volume. These 

 criticisms which, after all, deal with matters easily to be rectified 

 in a second edition, are framed in no carping spirit ; but the work 

 is so good that it would be a pity not to indicate the few points 

 where it misses the perfection at which the author has aimed. 

 Anyway, this is undoubtedly the flora of Egypt, and it is to be 

 hoped that the demand for it, both here and in America, will 

 prove that Dr. Muschler's confidence in choosing as its vehicle 

 the common mother-tongue has not been misplaced. n ^,|- 



Prodromus Florcn BritanniccB. By Frederic N. Williams. 

 Part 10 (pp. 533-604). C. Stutter, 110 High Street, Brent- 

 ford. (Price 3s. id.) 

 The tenth part of Mr. Williams's interesting Flora is pre- 

 ceded by a note on the inner side of the wrapper (which we 

 hope will be reprinted in a place less likely to be lost when the 

 volume is bound) in which he pays a high tribute to the usefulness 

 of the British Herbarium in the Department of Botany: "In 

 association with the special library, consisting of books, pamphlets, 

 MSS., and plates, dealing exclusively with British Botany, this 



