NOTES AND ARSTKACTS. 



487 



becomes intelligible; it is the first part of the illustrated handbook of 

 the more characteristic species which go to the making of the vegeta- 

 tion of Africa. The volume includes the Ferns and fern-allies, the 

 Gymnosperms and the Monocotyledons. The promise of numerous 

 illustrations is amply fulfilled — 330 illustrations in 450 pages. Many 

 of these are habitat-illustrations showing plants in their natural sur- 

 roundings, while the majority are morphological studies of the organs 

 of characteristic plants. The concept underlying this purely descrip- 

 tive part is to bring into prominence species which contribute to the 

 physiognomy of the vegetation. As the work is carried out on strictly 

 phytogeographical lines, it is extremely useful for the botanist, but less 

 interesting to the geographer than the subjects to be dealt with in 

 Volumes i. and v. The Grasses occupy a considerable part of the 

 volumes (170 pp.), because few families of plants play so important a 

 part in Africa, and because they are useful in delimiting the plant 

 formations. In this respect Africa shows more similarity to America 

 than to tropical Asia. The species are arranged into groups — coast 

 grasses, grass-steppe, scrub, etc., as these occur in various climatic 

 regions of Africa. The principal . cereals are: Durrdi (Andropog on 

 Sorghum) with many varieties, some used as corn, others for the pre- 

 paration of fermented' liquors ; other important millets are furnished by 

 Pennisetum ; Bice is cultivated especially in East Africa, and occurs 

 in several wild forms ; Korakan or Dagussa {Eleusine comcana) is 

 grown in East Africa and in Abyssinia up to 2400 metres altitude, 

 where Tef (Eragrostis ahyssinica) is also cultivated, and wheat and 

 barley are important crops at higher elevations; maize, introduced 

 from tropical America, has rapidly become a valued cereal; sugar is 

 obtained from the sugar cane (Saccharum) as well as locally in some 

 districts from other Grasses, e.g. Panicum Burgu, a plant of the flood- 

 lands of Western Soudan and the Niger. The Banana {Musa), 

 another important economic order for tropical Africa, the Liliacese, and 

 other showy-flow^ered orders allied to it, are also included m this 

 volume. The Orchids and Palms, also of general interest, are neither 

 of them so strongly represented in Africa as in the Asiatic monsoon- 

 region and in tropical America. It will thus be seen that we have 

 before us a monumental work containing a fund of information essen- 

 tial to those interested in the botany of Africa. One cannot lay it aside 

 without observing that the price, all things considered, is low, a result 

 of financial assistance from the German Colonial Office. — W. G. S. 



Vegetation of Africa. By A. Engler {Die Vegetation der Erde, 

 pL ix., 1910). — This volume of over 1000 pages has been greatly 

 enhanced in value by 400 figures, and a number of plates and maps, 

 the funds for which were provided by the Colonial Office at Berlin. 



It contains a general survey, especially of the tropical vegetation 

 of Africa, introductory to four other volumes dealing mainly with 

 floristic and systematic details — one of these is noticed above. The 

 general orientation is of considerable length (pp. 1-866), and takes up 



