195 
deni secs 15 feet in height. Forty-two new species of plants 
a described and two new genera made. One of these 
let panies. i is ead on a species formerly referred by A. Gray to 
Chenactis, the other, PAyllogonum, is allied to Eriogonum. An es say 
on the “ Principles of plant distribution," together with two others on 
the distribution of the plants over the region traversed, and the 
characteristics and adaptations of the desert flora, form "important 
additions to the literature of this subject. The report is illustrated with 
21 plates and contains a map of the region, with an index to the prin- 
cipal places mentioned therein, also a full bibliography and an index to 
the species. ‘Through the kindness of Mr. Coville a set of the plants 
collected during this expedition has been iM to Kew. 
Fijü-—Sir J. B. Thurston, K.C.M.G., Governor of Fiji, has for- 
warded specimens of two species of Pandanus found by him in Fiji. 
One of these appears to be the rare Pandanus Joskei, J. Horne, found 
but once previously in Fiji by Mr. Horne, late Director of the Depart- 
ment of Forests and Botanic Gardens, Mauritius. ‘The other is an 
undescribed species belonging to the section Ryckia. 
Annals of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta.— The fourth 
volume of this valuable publication has appeared. It consists of a ne 
illustrated monograph of the Anonacee of British India, by Dr. 
King, the Su perintendenť of the Garden; and it may fairly be 
characterised as a most valuable contribution to botanical literature. 
There are few more difficult natural orders than the Anonacee, even 
among those consisting entirely of arboreous and shrubby plants ; and it 
is almost impossible to identify species without figures or access to the 
cime i specie 
s s on whi s were founded. Dr. King describes 
about 270 ies, belongin enera, and a figure, including 
floral dissections, is given of each spécies. number o 
species are new, though not always described here for the first time; 
yet with all this wealth of new species Dr. King has introduced very 
few alterations in the genera, as defined in Bentham and Hooker’s 
Genera Plantarum, and “adopted i in Hookers Flora of British India, 
Lagerea has been restored to generic rank, and Griffithia, proposed, 
but not eiae by the late Dr. Maingay for Polyalthia mag- 
nolicflera, has also been taken up. The only other generie change is 
the substitution of the recent Canangium, Baillion, for the old Cananga 
Rumphius, on hber: of the existence of the properly defined 
Cananga of Aublet, belonging to the same natural order; but Dr. King 
seems to have dieit dd the fact that e: — proposed the name 
Canangium as a se ction of the e genus Uno 
This volume of the Annals, published é on: dii roin anniversary 
of the death of Colonel Robert Hs. is dedicated t to him, to whom India 
scheme for founding a garden of me aciem ite was warmly taken u 
by the then Governor-General, Sir John Maepherson, and. subsequently 
by the Court of Directors of the Honourable East India Company, mainly 
because it included the introduction and propagation of valuable 
economic ge ants for cultivation in the territories subject to the 
Company. Dr. King gives a portrait of the founder and a brief sketch 
of his career. 
