Botany and Zoology. 83 



2. Eucalyptographia : a descriptive Atlas of the Eucalypts 

 of Australia and the adjoining Islands • by Baron Feed, von 

 Mueller, K.C., M.G., & S. Melbourne, 1S79-1884, 4to.— The 

 tenth decade of this great work and the one hundred plates 

 besides the accessory ones having now been completed, the inde- 

 fatigable author here closes the volume, giving title page, dedica- 

 toin to the Prince of Wales, some general remarks, a detailed 

 character to the genus, a synoptical view of the species, a geo- 

 graphic schedule, and three indexes. Rut the undertaking is not 

 yet completed to the author's satisfaction. Twenty or thirty 

 species are yet to be illustrated, none of them common or of known 

 economic importance, and several still obscure for want of suffi- 

 cient material. These Baron Mueller proposes to illustrate in 

 " at least two more decades;" and he contemplates even a revision 

 of the main body of the work, and the incorporation of recently 

 accrued material; so that a second volume may in time be looked 

 for. The courage, perseverance, and public spirit of the author 

 are much to be admired. What an immense amount of work he 

 has already done for the Australian flora ! a. g. 



3. Les Organismes jProblematiques des Anciennes Mers / par 

 le Marquis de Saporta. Paris: Masson, 1884. pp. 93, tab. 

 13, imp. 4to. — This follows up the author's Apropos des Algues 

 Fossiles, in an equally sumptuous volume, even more i*ichly illus- 

 trated. Besides the 13 plates there is a double one serving as 

 frontispiece, representing Bilobites prendo-fwci f 'era, of the natural 

 size of the specimen, and a good number of wood-cuts in the letter- 

 press. Four of the plates illustrate fossilization in demi-relief of 

 Brachyphyllum and Nymphma, the others Gyrolithes, Vexillum, 

 and Bilobites, — vestiges of problematical forms of primordial 

 seas, which in the letter-press are elaborately expounded. He 

 brings new evidence and considerations to show that these are 

 really casts of organisms. * a. g. 



4. The Lythracem of the United States; by E. Koehne. 

 Bot. Gazette for May, 1885, with a plate. — It is gratifying to 

 have articles from European botanists of mark in our own journals, 

 and Dr. Koehne (of Berlin and Friedenau) may first of all be 

 complimented for his idiomatic English. It is well-known that 

 he has made an exhaustive study of the Lythracem, the full results 

 of which appear in his monograph of the order published in Eng- 

 ler's Botanische Jahrbucher. Although this order is feebly repre- 

 sented in this country, yet we have more genera and species than 

 any other part of the northern temperate zone, and there was a 

 good deal to be done for the elucidation both of genera and 

 species. The present article summarily presents the result so far 

 as affects North American botany, and its publication in Coulter's 

 Botanical Gazette renders it accessible to those most interested. 



As to the propriety of re-establishing the Linnrean genus Rotala 

 (which Bentham had referred fo Ammannia), we could not now 

 give a valuable opinion. Dr. Koehne says that, "it will be rather 

 difficult, I fear, to convince North American botanists of the 



