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252 NOTICES OF BOOKS.
author's previous work on this suhject, there is reason for some
satisfaction with this portion of the hook. The author contents
himself with these descriptions and a reference to his own larger
hook, and steers clear of the pitfalls of synonymy. As for the
plates, they are mostly outline figures redrawn on stone from
Cooke's larger book and other sources. It may be that there
is somewhere in this book an acknowledgment of the oriijinal.
sources of some of these figures, but we have not yet found the
place. However, Dr. Nordstedt has already so fully shown what
Mr. Cooke can do in this way on a larger scale that there is no
special need to deal with the matter. These figures of the genera
and the page giviiig their names constitute the really useful part of
this book. It cannot be claimed for it that it embodies the work of
an original worker in this field, or of a man who has an extensive,
practical first-hand knowledge of the subject, but so far as the
latter part (containing the descriptions and figures) is concerned,
it may bo said of it that it is worth the price charged as a help
to the beginner in naming specimens. As for guidance in the
structure, life-history, and relationshij)s of these organisms, the
student need expect none of it. G. M.
HcpaticcB Boliviano;. By Piichaed Spruce. Mem. Torrey Bot. Club,
vol. I. No. 8 (1890).
This is another valuable contribution to our knowledge of the
hepatic flora of South America by our countryman Dr. Spruce, and
we are pleased to observe that he still has that keenness of vision
and skill which was manifested in his admirable work ' Hepaticte
Amazonicfe et Andime.'
The species described in this memoir are those collected by Dr.
Eusby during parts of the years 1885-6, whilst botanising on the
eastern slopes of the Bolivian Andes, at an altitude of from 4 to
12,000 ft. His special object was the collection of flowering plants
and ferns, but amongst his specimens were a mmiber of hepatics
growing principally on the fronds of ferns, as Dr. Spruce remarks,
a prolific nidus, more particularly for the minuter species. For
example, on an Acrostichiiw , besides a Badnhf, were half-a-dozen
Lcjeunece. ; these specimens, many of them very small, were picked
out and numbered by Mrs. Britton, Keeper of the Cryptogamio
Herbarium, Columbia College, New York, and forwarded to Dr.
Spruce to determine.
The introductory remarks on the geographical distribution of
the species are especially interesting :
it appears there is a greater
correspondence of the hepatic flora of Bolivia with that of Mexico,
made known to us mainly by the collection of Liebmann (see the
excellent Gottsch. Mex. Leverm.), than with that of the equatorial
regions (lat. 0-70° S.), investigated personally by Dr. Spruce.
Many of the hepatics of the highlands of Mexico are identical witli
those collected by Dr. Kusby at nearly the same altitude in Bolivia,
although some of them seen nowhere by Dr. Spruce near the
Equator. Three Mexican rhn/iuchiUf are proved to belong also to