Botany. 417 



Mueller has continually made to popularize the study of Botany 

 in Victoria must certainly be followed by happy results. It is to 

 be hoped that this his latest work in this direction will be pro- 

 ductive of an increased interest in the life history of the plants of 

 the southern continent. G. L. G. 



3. Revision of North American Umbelliferw / by J. M. 

 Coulter and J. N. Rose, 1888. pp. 144 and pi. ix. — In this work 

 the authors have given us a sufficient account of the structural 

 peculiarities of the family, together with a systematic analysis of 

 the genera, accompanied by illustrations of cross sections of the 

 fruit. An artificial analysis supplements the treatise. This con- 

 tribution, part of which has already come before the public in 

 installments in the Botanical Gazette, will be very welcome to all 

 botanists in its completed form. G. l. g. 



4. Ilora Italiana, vol. viii. Florence, March 1889. — We 

 have here Professor Camel's examination of part of the Order 

 Umbelliferse. There are descriptions of 221 species, in many cases 

 with pretty full accounts of the geographical distribution. He 

 divides the 63 genera represented, into seven groups. The 

 present volume closes with the genus Caucalis, leaving two more 

 genera to complete the treatment of the family. G. l. g. 



5. Diagnoses plantarum novarum asiaticarum, VII. C. J. 

 Maximowicz. (Bulletin de l'Acad. imperiale des sciences de St. 

 Petersbourg, t. xii.) — Attention is called to the critical study given 

 by the author to the 250 species of Pedicularis and the illustra- 

 tions of 1 15 of them. The communication possesses great interest 

 not only to the systematic botanist but to those who are engaged 

 in the investigation of adaptive characters of the flower. 



G. L. G. 



6. The Orchids of the Cape Peninsula ; by Harry Bolus, 

 F.L.S. [Cape Town, 1888, (Trans. South African Philosophical 

 Society, vol. v, part I, pp. 125, 36 plates, some of them colored 

 in part.)] — The area of the Cape Peninsula, as here restricted, is 

 about 200 square miles } and contains 1750 species of plants, of 

 which 102 are orchids. In the relative richness of its vegetation 

 in orchids it is said to be surpassed only by some portions of 

 Australia. Only one of the 102 species has yet been detected 

 beyond the limits of South Africa, namely, Liparis Capensis, in 

 the Cameroons Mountains, where it is said that some other typical 

 Cape plants have been detected. Thirty-three of these species 

 are confined to the Cape Peninsula, although many of them will 

 perhaps be found outside of its narrow limits as exploration pro- 

 ceeds. The amazing abundance of these highly specialized plants 

 in an area less than one-sixth of that of the State of Rhode Island, 

 renders this a field of exceptional character for a biologist. Mr. 

 Bolus has given us a useful systematic handbook of the Cape 

 Orchids, with no attempt at present to deal with the biological 

 questions involved. While he has placed botanists under great 

 obligations by this systematic work he leads them to ask whether 

 he cannot, better than any one else, give the life-histories of the 

 more interesting species. g. l. g. 



