556 Reviews. [July, 



gamopetalous corolla and an inferior ovary. The work is one of the 

 Colonial Floras, which we owe in great measure to the representa- 

 tions of Sir William J. Hooker. It is executed by Botanists of great 

 reputation, who have personally studied the South African Flora 

 during their residence at the Cape of Good Hope. The fourth volume 

 is now in preparation, and will include the proper Corollifloral Orders, 

 with superior ovaries. The fifth volume will take in all the Mono- 

 chlamydeas, and the sixth the Monocotyledons and Ferns, completing 

 the work. The following are some of the remarks in the preface : — 

 " In undertaking the Flora Capensis, the authors propose to furnish 

 to the colonists in the British South African provinces a clear and 

 concise descriptive catalogue of the vegetable productions of their 

 adopted country. As the colonies have no very definite limits to the 

 northward, neither have the authors been anxious to fix a boundary 

 line to this Flora. Generally speaking, the Cape Flora is limited on 

 the north by the Gariep or Orange Eiver, and on the east by the 

 Tugela — boundaries more convenient than natural, for the Orange 

 Eiver, at its western extremity, rather flows through than bounds the 

 peculiar Desert Flora of Namaqualand ; and the Tugela merely limits 

 the British Colony of Natal, while the characteristic vegetation of 

 Kafferland, of which Natal is a section, extends northwards at least to 

 Delagoa Bay, gradually assuming the features of Tropical African 

 vegetation. Whilst, therefore, the Flora is tolerably complete for the 

 old-established colonial district, both of the Western and Eastern pro- 

 vinces, it presents little more than an outline sketch of the Northern 

 and North-Eastern regions, and of the Natal Colony ; and still more 

 imperfectly portrays the vegetation of Great Namaqualand, Betchuana- 

 land, the Orange Eiver Free State, and the Transvaal Eepublic, all 

 lying beyond the Gariep. 



" The authors have diligently availed themselves of every acces- 

 sible collection of plants from the last-named regions ; but so few 

 botanical travellers have yet explored them, save in some scattered 

 spots, that their vegetation is as yet all but unknown. From what we 

 know of the plants of Transvaal, especially of its mountains and high 

 plateaux, that country promises to the Botanist the richest harvest yet 

 ungathered in South Africa, and the long mountain range that divides 

 Kaffraria from the Western regions, while it limits the distribution of 

 the greater portion of the subtropical types that mingle in the Cape 

 Flora, probably still retains in its unexplored wilds multitudes of 

 interesting plants. This we infer from the fact that almost every 

 small package of specimens received from the Natal, or the Transvaal 

 district, contains not only new species but new genera ; and some of 

 the latter are of so marked and isolated a character, as to lead us to 

 infer the existence in the same region of unknown types that may 

 better connect them with genera or orders already known." 



The work is one of vast importance as regards practical and Geo- 

 graphical Botany, and it is the only good work of reference in con- 

 nection with the Cape Flora. It must be in the library of every 

 Botanist who wishes to study the plants of Southern Africa. 



