Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/433

 THE HORN EXPEDITION TO CENTRAL AUSTRALIA. 403 minimus it is said, " both much require confirmation " ; a specimen from one of these (Kirkcudbrightshire), collected by Mr. F. E. Coles, is in the British Museum Herbarium. Occasionally we find entries which at first sight are extremely puzzling — for example, ''Tussilago petasites x farfara." This startling addition to our list of hybrids is due to erroneous inference. Mr. Elliot found " Tussilago hybrida " in Lightfoot's Flora Scotica as an Annandale plant, and, not knowing that this was merely the female form of Petasites vulgaris, concluded that a cross between Butterbur and Coltsfoot was intended. When it is remembered that the whole of these plants — " escapes," extinctions, doubtfuls, hybrids, and the like — occupy the same position in the book as the most undoubted natives, it will be seen that Mr. Elliot has not availed himself of the oppor- tunities which a variation of type provides : this is further evidenced by the printing of the extraordinary abbreviations of the authorities in the same type as the localities. The book, however, is well printed, though we do not under- stand why the authorities are separated from the names by a period, thus — '^Thalictrwn alpimim. Linn." Without insisting that the authority is really part of the name, it is certain tbat apart from it it has no meaning. The proofs have not been carefully read, or we should hardly find **Camelina saliva," "Pinquicula" (twice), '' Daucus Carrota," *' Ornithogallum," *' Geranium pheum," " Arcto- staphylos ulva-ursi," "Spirea" (thrice), **Crystopteris," and others of the kind : the authorities for the species are occasionally omitted. We sometimes hear of a sea-captain who, after many years' service in all parts of the world and in all kinds of weather, becomes sea-sick when he crosses the Channel. So Mr. Scott Elliot, who has botanized in South Africa, has collected in Madagascar, has added greatly to our knowledge of Tropical Africa and its flora, and has conducted an adventurous expedition to Euwenzori, has found in the enumeration of the plants of his own small county a task beyond his powers of accomplishment. It may not be true that genius consists of **an infinite capacity for taking pains"; but it is certain that such a capacity is essential to any one who wishes to produce a standard local flora. The Horn Expedition to Central Australia.-'' In his Keport, Prof. Ralph Tate gives an interesting account of the Larapintine and Central Eremian Floras, together with an enumeration of the plants of the former. These regions are in Central Australia, south of the Tropic of Capricorn, but considerably to the north-west of that vast expanse of water, the Northern Lake Eyre. In his Handbook of Extra-tropical South Australia Prof. Tate demarked the area occupied by the Eremian Flora and its sub- divisions, the northern and central regions being separated from each other by a latitudinal line through Charlotte Waters. Now
 * Eeport of the Horn Expedition to Central Australia. Part iii. March, 1896.