Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/518

 484 ICONES OKCHIDEARUM AUSTRO-AFRIOANUM EXTRA-TROPIC ARUM. additional entry as to the number and distribution of species in each. M. Durand has more than once shown his special fitness for work of this kind, and his association with M. Autran, the courteous curator of the Boissier Herbarium, has doubtless contributed materially to the value of the catalogue. This is the more apparent when we learn that the references have not been taken, as is too often the case, at secondhand; the compilers have, in every instance, themselves consulted the works referred to. It appears, however, from M. Crepin's interesting preface, that it is to Boissier's son- in-law, M. Barbey, the present owner of the collections, that we are indebted for the suggestion which has resulted in the present enumeration, which represents the species actually cultivated in the Gardens in 1885, the year of Boissier's death. The number of species in the Gardens exceeds five thousand. Such a work does not lend itself to detailed review, but it may be well to call attention to the fact that it contains certain combi- nations — rendered necessary by the reduction or changed limita- tions of genera — which are here published for the first time, and must date from this publication. Such new names are carefully indicated thus: — ^' Lathy r us ^omirn Nob. — Orobus grandiflorus Boissier M. Or. ii (1873) 622." An excellent portrait of Boissier forms an appropriate frontispiece to the volume. Icones Orchidearum Austro-Africanarum extra -tropicar iim ; or. Figures, with Descriptions^ of extra-tropical South African Orchids. By HARRy Bolus, F.L.S. Vol. I., Part II. London : Wesley. Aug. 20th, 1896. Price £1 Is. net. 8vo. The field-botanists, students, and lovers of nature in South Africa, whom Mr. Bolus is especially anxious to serve, as well as all workers at orchids, will welcome the issue of the second part of this valuable book. The author, who is also the artist, and frequently too the collector or discoverer of the plants he describes and figures, is to be envied for the exceptional opportunities he has of studying living specimens of so interesting but difficult a group of plants, often in their native habitats. Cape orchids in particular are to be desired in a fresh condition, or at least preserved in some fluid in which they retain at any rate their natural form. In genera like Disperis and others of the sub-tribe Corycea so much depends on the shape of the generally highly complicated column, which it is impossible to restore to its natural shape when once the flower has been dried. Our thanks are due to Mr. Bolus for recording in so complete and attractive a manner the results of his work on the species of the Cape peninsula. It is with feelings of relief and pleasure that we refer to his book after, for instance, racking our brains over some miserably inadequate description by Eeichenbach. We can quite sympathize with Mr. Bolus in his unsatisfactory attempt to tit a plant to Disperis stenoplectron Echb. f. "It is impossible," he says, *'to know certainly whether this is Reichenbach's plant," &c., with the usual animadversions on the conduct of the eccentric professor.