Allgemeines. 
403 
1. Working Drawings of Floral Diagrams, Sectional Elevations, 
Figures of Fruits, Seeds, and Inflorescence Schemes, in pen and 
ink, are reproduced as line blocks. The floral diagrams are large 
and clear, while the elevations are plotted to scale at an Optimum 
size of about ten inches by six. The volume contains thirteen full- 
page plates of such working drawings. 
2. Sectional Elevations in Colours by the best type of Photogra¬ 
phie process, serve to exemplify the finished Standard drawing of 
a flower, constructed at the Optimum size. The First Part contains 
thirty-nine coloured architectural designs, in which accuracy of 
detail has not been subordinated to artistic effects. 3. Figures 
illustrating developmental stages, apical constructions, and pheno- 
nema which are not directly investigated by the elementary Student, 
are reproduced as bold half-tone blocks. Over seventy of these 
blocs are comprised with the twelve types of Part I. 
While sufficiently complete in itself, the plan of the work ren- 
ders further extension possible to an almost unlimited extent. A 
second issue of twelve summer types, to be followed by twelve 
autumn and winter types, would round off a volume representing a 
good year’s work at the subject, the types selected comprising three 
suitable flowers for each month in the year. 
The First Part includes the Types: I. Helleborus, II. Galanihus, 
III. Jasminum, IV. Crocus, V. Richardia, VI. Daphne, VII. Viola, 
VIII. Narcissus, IX. Erica, X. Ribes, XI. Cydonia, XII. Vinca. 
The inclusion of Allied Forms extends the list considerably, and 
for the more important of these the coloured elevation is given. 
F. W. Oliver. 
Spruce, R., Notes of a ßotanist on the Amazon and Andes, 
edited by Alfred Rüssel Wallace. (With portrait, 71 illustra- 
tions and 7 maps; 2 vols., Macmillan & Co., London, £ 1.1.0, net. 
1908.) 
By the publication of these convenient and well-printed volumes 
the narrative of Richard Spruce’s travels in S. America (1849—1864) 
together with much other matter belonging to the same period, 
selected from his Journals, Letters and scattered notes, become 
accessible to Botanists. “It has been my endeavour” writes Wallace 
in his Preface “to bring together whatever might be useful to bota¬ 
nists, and also to include all matters of interest to general readers. 
This task has been to me a labour of love; and I have myself so 
high an opinion of my friend’s work, both literary and scientific, 
that I venture to think the present volumes will take their place 
among the most interesting and instructive books of travel of the 
nineteenth Century.” The name of Spruce is of course held in high 
esteem as that of one of the most accomplished workers in the field 
of Hepaticology; but as a traveller and collector, a keen observer of 
tropical nature, and one who played a leading part half a Century 
ago in securing Cinchona plants and seeds for transmission to 
India, Spruce is too little known. These pages show him to have 
been an ardent naturalist and first rate observer with a marked 
literary gift, so that the narrative of his travels forms a most attrac- 
tive book. Though the botanical interest is paramount, the records 
of numerous observations in other fields of natural history are 
interspersed. The book teems with descriptions of tropical Vegetation 
in its various aspects — the forest, river banks, catingas, campos, 
