cx The Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society 
number of investigators, and consequently a more considerable advance- 
ment of these branches of study. 
The knowledge of our flora has been extended and deepened in a 
marked degree, not a single year having passed in which a considerable 
number of new species have not been discovered and described ; and 
the fact that some of them came from the well-explored neighbourhood 
of our larger towns proves that the field is in no way and in no part of 
the country exhausted. Some regions, formerly imperfectly known, 
have been searched with great success, the collections of Mr. Flanagan 
in the Transkei, and of Dr. Schinz and myself in the Kalahari region, 
having yielded over 300 new species. 
There are a few orders which have attracted special attention and 
benefited from it. Chief among them stand the orchids, of which our 
knowledge is at present far more satisfactory than it was ten years ago. 
This progress is almost entirely due to the unfailing enthusiasm and 
persevering labours of Mr. Harry Bolus, whose work on the Orchids of 
the Cape Peninsula ornaments our Transactions, while the first part of 
his ‘ Extra-Tropical South African Orchids,’ which contains fifty 
beautifully-executed plates, was published as an independent book in 
1893. Asa similar number of plates for the second part of this work 
is already completed, we shall soon have raised our knowledge of this 
part of South African natural history to such an advanced state that 
few other branches can rival it. 
Another order, equally intricate in its floral characters, and con- 
sequently equally dependent on the study of fresh material, viz., 
Asclepiadacez, has been quite recently rescued from long neglect, Mr. 
Schlechter, the fortunate discoverer of many new plants belonging to 
this and other orders, having paid special attention to it. 
The number of new species described during the last ten years 
amounts to forty-seven orchids, thirty-four heaths, and many Asclepia- 
daceze, while the other orders have received constant additions by the 
labours of these botanists as well as their friends, chief among whom 
are Professor MacOwan, Professor Guthrie, Professor Bodkin, and Mr. 
Medley Wood. The Liliacezw, Iridacee, Amaryllidacee, and allied 
orders, were sufficiently dealt with in Mr. Baker’s general monographs 
of these orders, and the Juncacez by Professor Buchenau. The Restia- 
ceze have been well treated by Professor Masters, and the grasses by 
Professor Hackel in a recent part of De Candolle’s ‘Prodromus.’ Another 
work of great value to the student of South African botany is the re- 
cently published fifth volume of the ‘Conspectus Flore Africe’ by 
Durand and Schinz ; for it comprises just those orders which are not in- 
cluded in the ‘ Flora Capensis.’ The continuation of this latter work 
has unfortunately been delayed, although the manuscript and the funds 
