LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



lxxix 



Flora Brasiliensis which he edits. Of this costly work the parts 

 published within the last twelvemonth comprise Celastrinece, Hicinece 

 and R7ia?nnece, by Dr. Reissek, Scropliularinece, by Dr. J. Schmidt, 

 and Dalbergiece and Sophorece, completing my Papilionacece. Chile 

 has also distinguished herself in Natural History. The Flora 

 Chilena, completed at Paris a few years since for the Chilian 

 Government by M. Claude Gay, has been followed by various papers 

 by Dr. Philippi, Professor of Zoology and Botany in the University 

 of Santiago, and Director of a Museum which he appears almost to 

 have founded there. Amongst these, his Travels in, and Flora and 

 Fauna of the Desert of Atacames, which, although published in 

 Germany, was written at Santiago, deserves especial notice. The 

 flora of the remainder of South America is only known from the 

 collections of travellers published in Europe, amongst which M. 

 Weddell has completed the second volume of his valuable Chloris 

 Andina, and Karsten the first of his Flora Columbiana. The latter, 

 however, is not a Flora in the ordinary sense of the word, but a 

 selection of new and little-known species, splendidly illustrated. It 

 is only to be regretted that the beautifully executed and accurate 

 analyses and careful descriptions should not have been accompanied 

 by a little more literary research, for the proportion of already 

 known genera or species given as new is greater than might have 

 been expected. We had hoped also, ere this, to have had the first 

 volume of Planchon and Triana's Flora of New Granada ; but the 

 promised aid on the part of the Government of that country has 

 been delayed, although I trust not definitively stopped, by domestic 

 revolutions. 



Under the head of Faunas and Floras I would add a few words 

 on the subject of illustrations of the results of scientific exploring 

 expeditions. In these expeditions, undertaken at great cost, the 

 labours of the zoological and botanical collectors who accompany 

 them are often most liberally encouraged, and on their return home 

 funds are supplied for the publication of the results, but not un- 

 frequently upon terms which interfere much with their practical 

 utility. It would seem as if the object were not so much to add to 

 our knowledge of the productions of the countries visited, as to make 

 a vain boast of the number of new genera or species discovered, or 

 of the specimens collected. It is seldom that in these great expe- 

 ditions there are not some countries more completely explored than 

 had ever been previously the case, and whose faunas and floras, if 

 rendered complete up to the present state of science, are great desi- 

 derata, whilst specimens gathered during a few days' stay at some 



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