182 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



BOOK EEVIEWS. 



" Flora of Jamaica," Vol. i., Orchidacese. By William Fawcett, 

 B,.Sc., F.L.Sl, and Alfred Bar^ton Eendle, M.A., D.Sc, F.E.S., 

 F.L.S. 8vo. 150 pp. 32 plates. (Trustees of the British Museum, 

 1910.) 10s. e>d. 



Botanists, and all interested in orchids, will welcome this new 

 standard work on the orchids of Jamaica, a subject previously very 

 imperfectly dealt with, as witness the large number of new species which 

 the authors found after comparison with the most complete material 

 ever got together, and reference to all authorities on the subject. The 

 genus Lepanthes alone gave twelve new species, while in Neo-Urhania 

 and Harrisella the authors establish two new genera. The value of 

 the descriptions is in many cases enhanced by the very carefully-pre- 

 pared illustrations of the plants and their parts in the plates with 

 which the work is embellished. 



That the preparation of such a work has been considered many 

 times by able men there is no doubt, but the difficulties both as regards 

 material for comparison and other important points prevented its 

 accomplishment. During his twenty-one years' residence as Director 

 of the Public Gardens and Plantations of Jamaica, Mr. William 

 Fawcett continuously studied the Flora of Jamaica, and especially the 

 orchids. He was fortunate in getting a fine series of drawings made by 

 Miss Helen Wood, and later in securing the coll6boration of Dr. A. B. 

 Eendle, Keeper of the Botanical Department of the British Museum 

 (Natural History), one of the oldest botanists of our day. 



Much of the work was carried on at the British Museum, and in 1904 

 an account of the genus Lepanthes was published. In 1908 when Mr. 

 Fawcett retired and came to England, he, in conjunction with Dr. 

 Eendle, completed the work, the permission of the Trustees having been 

 obtained to publish it as a British Museum Catalogue, an honour which 

 it well merits. 



In the introduction the authors give the best account of the Island 

 of Jamaica, its geological, climatic, botanical, and other aspects possible 

 within the limits of the space at their command. 



The enumeration of the orchids embraces 62 genera with a total of 

 194 species, full references and descriptions being given in each case 

 together with remarks on the situations in which they are found grow- 

 ing naturally, which will be of use to the cultivator as well as the 

 student. In some cases well-known species have been re-named under 

 a new combination taking in tlie specific name of the original but now 

 obsolete record, and, although in accordance with the Vienna rules, 

 sometimes with unsatisfactory result so far as their use in gardens is 

 concerned. An example is the Plialus Tancarvilleae Blume, adopted 



