NOTES AND ABSTRACTS. 



489 



Africa. The arid character of German South-Wesfc Africa is shown 

 by a Tegetation map, and other coloured maps bring out in strong con- 

 trast the rich forest areas of the Kamerun and Togo. The description 

 of the West Coast is completed by a short sketch on the vegetation of 

 the islands, Cape Verde, the Canaries, and Madeira. 



The geographical part of the work (pp. 871-966) gives details of 

 temperature and rainfall in the different regions of Africa, and short 

 summaries of the altitudinal zones, and of the ecological plant forma- 

 tions. For fioristic purposes, the continent is divided into four areas: 

 (a) the Mediterranean, (h) the deserts of the northern African-Indian 

 area, (c) the forest and steppe area, and (d) the south-western Cape 

 area. 



While a work of this size requires some application in reading it, 

 the wealth of illustration is of great assistance. Most of the figures 

 are purely botanical, illustrating the features of characteristic species, 

 but there is also a large proportion of landscapes or habitat illus- 

 * trations, reproduced from photographs. — W. G. S. 



Vegetation of the Balkan States, The. By Dr. Lujo Adamovid 



(Die Vegetation der Erde, pt. xi. 1909). — The countries adjoining 

 the Balkans have played a conspicuous part in the political 

 history of Europe, but their physical features and natural 

 history are not so well known. Our knowledge of south-eastern 

 Europe has been greatly enlarged by the enterprise of the 

 editors of Die Vegetation der Erde, who have been fortunate in secur- 

 ing important memoirs from eminent botanists in that region. A 

 monograph on the vegetation of the Carpathians by Dr. Pax was com- 

 pleted recently, and in 1901 there was issued Bitter von Beck's work 

 on the vegetation of the Illyrian countries, including South Croatia, 

 Dalmatia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, Northern Albania, and 

 Servia. The present voiume deals with the area lying between von 

 Beck's " Illyria " to the west, and Pax's " Carpathians " to the 

 north; it includes Servia, Bulgaria, Eastern Eoumelia, and the 

 northern parts of Thrace, Macedonia, and Eastern Albania, that is, 

 approximately, the former Eoman province of Moesia. 



The author. Professor Lujo Adamovid, lecturer on Plant-Geo- 

 graphy in the University of Vienna, has worked the area systematically 

 since 1890, and he is the author of nearly fifty papers on its botany, 

 [n the historical review one sees that many botanists have explored 

 these lands, but most of all Josef Pancid. This botanist practically 

 discovered the vegetation of these Balkan countries, and was con- 

 siderably assisted by King Milan, himself a good botanist, who showed 

 his interest by establishing the present botanic garden at Belgrade. It is 

 noteworthy that the present volume is dedicated to Ferdinand I. of 

 Bulgaria, " through whose generosity the printing of so many costly 

 maps was made possible." Of maps there is an excellent series, 

 coloured to show the vegetation. Two show the whole area (scale 1: 

 750,000), and they will be found useful as physical and topographical 



