330 Scientific Intelligence. 
lithography we have seen. The copious details, most admirably 
drawn, are also printed in colors and are very effective. The 
letter-press i is equally superb. It was in ae prepared by Schott, 
the first monographer of the Aroidew, who died in 1865, was 
then taken in hand by Kotschy, who died soon after, and by 
- Fenzl, whom we have recently lost, and is now completed by Dr. 
Peyritsch. This magnificent book is the latest and probably the 
last of the fruits of the voyage to Brazil (in 1859-60) of the un-— 
fortunate Maximilian. We gaoeee : is brought out by pe ex- 
ecutors, and is a monument to his memory. 
. Naturalized Weeds and pe "Plants of South y Ree 
by “Ricwarp ScuomspureK, Ph.D., “ Adelai sie 1879. 4t 
pamphlet.—It was a good thought make a record of the 
troublesome plants already Skies in “South webct with 
as far as possible the dates and particular circumstances of their 
introduction, and thus to give succeeding observers the means 
comparing the future with the present condition. It will be 
competitors. The race is not alw ays to the swift, if jt be a long 
one. Most of the introduced weeds came from Europe. The fol- 
lowing are exceptions: 
Oxalis cernua of the Cape of Good Hope. This arrived as a 
garden plant, near the year 1840; it now overruns all gardens, 
and is spreading most alarmingly i in the wheat fields. ies is said 
that the first bulbs were sold for two pence each. It now has 
notorious preéminence over all introduced weeds, since it is next 
to ages to eradicate it when it has pastas > a footing. 
ry, mma calendulacea, called Cape Dandelion, “ has 
taken possesion of the land for the last twenty-five years, and 
red, 
much Slips by wie. and sheep, so ‘that it is not so much 0 
nuisa 
The ext are mostly common weeds of ee papi but 
many of them came in by way of Tasm e worst are 
Composite, and are main] Co ckspur or Ce ntaured Meltensis 
Acanthium, and Trail sonnet called Stink-Aster, “the most 
noxious and dangerous plant ever introduced.” An equa ally bad 
character is given to the Black Oat, Avena sativa, var. me elano- 
sper iid, mnie 3 is singular, considering that its near relative, the 
Avena sterilis, is a great blessing to California, over which it has 
been icky diffused. Dr. Schomburgk says: “T 
commun sige Thou oe ie acres of arable land, especially 
such as have been in culkin ti tion for some years, are totally ruipe 
for the purpose of wheat-growing by the black oats.” 
