Annals of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta

Abstract

THE two previous volumes of this publication are devoted entirely to the illustration and description of the arboreous element in the Indian Flora, and the letter-press is solely the work of Dr. King. Volume I. deals with the difficult genus Ficus, illustrated by 232 plates; and the second volume treats of the almost equally difficult genus Quercus and the allied Castanopsis, as well as the genus Artocar pus, of which seventeen species are described and figured. As may be seen from the list of papers given above, the work in the present volume is partly by Dr. King, and partly by his Curator, Dr. Prain; the former continuing his valuable labours on the trees of India, whilst Dr. Prain has taken up two herbaceous genera. A critical review of this ponderous volume would require more space than could be given to it in the pages of NATURE, and a much deeper knowledge of the subjects than the writer possesses; but it is not a difficult task to give an idea of the nature and quality of the series of monographs it contains. At the outset one is disposed to find fault with the bulk and fourteen pounds weight of this book, because it is really fatiguing to handle, and smaller volumes are in every way more desirable. Fortunately, the present volume may be conveniently bound in three nearly equal parts, as each monograph has its separate title-page and index. Indeed, it might be preferable to bind each of the four monographs separately. Annals of the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta. Vol. III. (1) The Species of Pedicularis of the Indian Empire and its Frontiers, by D. Prain, M.B., F.R.S.E., Curator of the Herbarium. (2) The Magnoliaceae of British India, by G. King, M.B., LL.D., F.R.S., C.I.E., Superintendent of the Garden. (3) The Genus Gomphostemma, by D. Prain. (4) The Species of Myristica of British. India, by G. King. 4to, pp. 350, tt. 174. (Calcutta: Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press, 1891.)