REVIEWS 
39 
Generous acknowledgment is made to numerous botanists and collectors 
and the records of localities are as full as they can be made. This, together 
with the information given in a separate chapter on distribution, will form 
an exceptionally useful basis for further work from the phytogeographical 
standpoint. The appearance of the book is sure to lead to an increased 
interest in the group and further collecting and recording. It is a work 
which is indispensable to all interested in S. African plant life from whatever 
standpoint. The cost of producing a book of this description, with 186 plates, 
has doubtless been considerable and the author states that he is especially 
indebted to the Witwatersrand Council of Education, the Education depart- 
ments of Cape Colony and Natal, the Hon. Marshall Campbell and others 
for financial assistance. 
In conclusion, a brief summary may be given of the main points in which 
this second edition differs from the first, since this is in effect a record of the 
progress made in the study of South African Pteridophyta since 1892. 
In the first place, botanical nomenclature has now adopted fixed principles 
and this has involved changes far too numerous to mention here. The area 
dealt with has been extended to include the whole of S. Africa south of the 
Zambesi, instead of that south of the Tropic of Capricorn. The list of 
records from the Northern Colonies has been greatly increased and, as a result, 
the present edition enumerates 220 species as compared with 179 in the 
first edition. At the same time, Sim’s thorough and accurate knowledge of 
the species as they grow under natural conditions, has enabled him to reduce 
from specific rank many of the forms hitherto regarded as good species. 
He has ventured even to delete several species, which were retained by 
Christensen in his Index Filicum as S. African. Whenever any doubt exists, 
however, the species have been retained. The following new species are 
described: — Hymenophyllum uncinatum, Asplenium Eylesii, A. Hollandi, 
Pellaea Swynnertoniana, Notholaena bipinnata, Isoetes Wormaldii, the last 
mentioned an interesting form, with leaves nine to eighteen inches long. 
i J. W. BEWS. 
INDISCH NATUURONDERZOEK. By Dr M. J. Sires, pp. xi + 303. 
Price $4.25. Koloniaal Instituut te Amsterdam. Mededeeling, No. VI. 
Afdeeling Handelsmuseum, No. 2. 
This volume contains an interesting sketch of the history of the de- 
velopment of natural science in the Dutch East Indies from the beginning 
of the seventeenth century onwards. To botanists the most interesting 
chapters are those dealing with the life and work of the botanical writers 
