310 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. IV., No. 86. 



40 to 71 species. Bigelovia, which fiftr years 

 ago had a single representative in the Atlantic 

 states, now, as extended, contains 19 species, 

 with its centre of distribution beyond the 

 Rocky Mountains ; whence, of late years, have 

 come, of course, the principal additions to our 

 flora. Similar comparisons might be made in- 

 definitely between the composition of our flora 

 as now understood and that of the earlier part 

 of the century, were such comparisons neces- 

 sary to illustrate the importance of the work 

 under consideration, or to impress upon our 

 readers the sense of our obligations to its au- 

 thor. Were it necessary or proper to say any 

 thing at this time in regard to the part pla}~ed 

 by Professor Gray in the development of bo- 

 tanical science in this country, it would only 

 be necessary to point to the fact, that, of the 

 North- American Compositae as enumerated in 

 this volume, more than 600 species and 30 

 genera have been characterized and enrolled by 

 him since the publication of his previous study 

 of the order. Twent}'-eight species are first 

 described in this volume. 



The present volume, like its predecessor, 

 will be found a model of comprehensive ar- 

 rangement, and neat, concise, and clear expres- 

 sion. Unlike its predecessor, it bears upon the 

 titlepage, in addition to the names of Professor 

 Gray's New- York, London, and Leipzig pub- 

 lishers, "Published try the Smithsonian insti- 

 tution, Washington," where copies, no doubt, 

 can be obtained, as well as from the author at 

 Cambridge. 



THE LANGUAGES OF AFRICA. 



A sketch of the modern languages of Africa; ac- 

 companied by a language-map. By Robert 

 Needham Oust. London, Triibner, 1883. 2 

 vols. 16 + 566 p. 8°. 



The Caucasus is styled in the east, from the 

 variet}' of idioms spoken by the many tribes 

 that are harbored in its recesses, the ' Mountain 

 of languages.' This variety, remarkable as it 

 is, becomes insignificant when compared with 

 that which exists in Africa, which might well 

 be called the ' Continent of languages.' In these 

 volumes of Mr. Cust, we read of no less than 

 five hundred and ninet} T -one distinct idioms, of 

 which four hundred and thirty-eight are classed 

 as languages, and a hundred and fifty-three as 

 dialects. And even this does not complete the 

 list ; for there are several unexplored regions, 

 of whose tribes and languages nothing certain 

 is known. 



A closer scrutiny, however, lessens the mar- 



vel materially. Of the idioms enumerated, no 

 less than two hundred and forty-eight belong 

 to that portion of the continent which lies south 

 of the equator. All these idioms, as is well 

 known, compose only two linguistic stocks, — 

 the great Bantu family, which occupies the 

 whole of the wide territory explored by Living- 

 stone and Stanley ; and the Hottentot-Bushman 

 family, comprising the tribes of dwarfish people 

 who seem to have been the aboriginal inhabit- 

 ants of South Africa. The Bantu nations now 

 speak, according to Mr. Cust, two hundred 

 and twenty-three languages and dialects. But 

 as philologists have no doubt that all the 

 idioms of the Indo-European stock are the Off- 

 spring of a primitive mother-tongue, which was 

 at one time spoken by a single tribe, and earlier 

 still by a single household, so we may feel as- 

 sured that all the languages of the Bantu family 

 have their origin in the speech of a single clan. 



There was reason to hope that in Mr. Cust's 

 elaborate work we should find this process 

 of reduction continued, and the vast variet}^ of 

 African tongues brought into the manageable 

 compass of a comparatively few linguistic 

 stocks. This expectation, unfortunately, is 

 not fulfilled. Mr. Cust has chosen to adopt 

 the classification of the eminent ethnologist, 

 Prof. F. Miiller, who arranges the languages 

 (or, more properly speaking, the tribes) of 

 Africa in six main divisions, — Semitic, Hamit- 

 ic, Nuba-Fulah, Negro, Bantu, and Hottentot- 

 Bushman. This arrangement, however, was 

 proposed by the distinguished Viennese pro- 

 fessor, not for linguistic, but mainly for eth- 

 nological, or rather anthropological, reasons. 

 Only three of these divisions — the Semitic, the 

 Bantu, and the Hottentot-Bushman — are true 

 families. The other three divisions are styled 

 by Mr. Cust, 'groups,' — a word which in 

 comparative philology has, at least as here 

 employed, no scientific meaning whatever. 

 The connection of the tribes composing these 

 groups is not even geographical : it depends 

 merely upon some physical resemblances ; and 

 these, it may be affirmed, are not nearly so 

 strong as those which exist between the Hun- 

 garians, the Germans, and the Basques, whom 

 no philologist would think of classing together. 

 In fact, the word ' group ' in this case is simply, 

 as Mr. Cust frankly admits, a confession of 

 ignorance. 



The ignorance which is thus confessed is, on 

 the author's part, to a large extent voluntary. 

 With the immense mass of linguistic materials 

 which he has collected, and which far surpasses 

 all that earlier inquirers have been able to ac- 

 cumulate, nothing would have been more easy 



