88 
HEPATIC^ OF AMAZON AND ANDES.* 
No one possessing an interest in the Botany of the British 
Islands can look upon the volume now before us without a sigh of 
regret that the Hepaticas of Great Britain are in a lamentable plight 
for lack of a monograph. It can hardly seem true that this part 
of our Flora has not been brought up to date for half a century, 
except a mere outline published at fourpence twenty years ago. It 
is true that a work was commenced by a very capable author a few 
years since, and collapsed at the fourth part ; but wherefore it was 
never resumed, with all the plates ready, is a mystery never ex- 
plained. Ill health and the encroachments of age are, we fear, 
strongly against the author of the present work being induced to 
supply the deficiency, which otherwise would be very safe in his 
hands. 
It is many years since Mr. Richard Spruce made his remarkable 
collections of cryptogamic plants in South America, and through 
the latter portion of that time this work has been maturing itself 
in his mind, and we congratulate him on sufficient health and 
strength having been left to him to bring it thus far towards com- 
pletion, for we are informed in a prefatory note that “ the 
additional matter on the physical features of the regions explored, 
and their connection with the vegetation — especially the hepatic 
vegetation— with critical remarks on certain of the genera and 
species, the author proposes (if he is able to complete it) to issue 
in the shape of a supplement to the work.” 
We have no intention of entering upon any detailed critical 
examination of the work before us ; indeed, such details would 
hardly commend themselves to the general reader, and, on the 
whole, we may assert, without contradiction, that not only is Mr. 
Spruce entirely at home with the Hepaticai, but he has worked out 
his monograph carefully, and with a masterly hand. This volume 
will undoubtedly prove itself a worthy monument of his labours. It 
may be that he has toiled through a long life in the pursuit of his 
favourite branches of Natural History, without much pecuniary 
remuneration or any great increment of worldly goods, yet he has 
the satisfaction of knowing that he has worked honestly and well. 
This volume, moderate in price, clear and neat in arrangement, 
typographical reproduction, and illustration, is recommended not 
only to all Natural History Societies, but to all individual 
naturalists who desire to have on their bookshelves the best works 
in all branches of systematic botany. And we venture to think 
that this will be one of the favoured few which will augment in 
value with the lapse of time. 
* “ Hepaticae of the Amazon and of the Andes of Peru and Ecuador,” by 
Richard Spruce, 588 pp., 22 plates, 8vo. Triibner and Co. 
