214 THE JOUBNAL OF INDIAN BOTANY.
advice to those who contemplate such work. He writes as an enthusiast, and no one not an enthusuiast could stand the exhausting work of standing for hours in a paddy swamp and in the blazing sun. But probably Mr. Rangaswami would rather say, that no one who has experienced bhe engros- sing interest of such work could fail to become an enthusiast. He touches on practically every process, sowing, transplanting, labelling, roguing, and the storing of the seed, and the paper should be read by all who take up this very useful and interesting line of work.
P. F. F.
Books
The Flora of the Nilgiri and Pulney Hill tops, — being the com- moner wild and introduced flowering plants of the hill-stations of Ootacamund, Kodaikanal and Kotagiri, Vol. Ill including the country round Coonoor and down to 5,000 ft. By P. F. Fyson, with illustra- tions by Mrs. Fyson and others. Madras, at the Government Fress, Bs. 15/6.
This volume is supplementary to the two which appeared in 1915 and dealt with the plateau down to 6,500 ft. It contains not only the species of the wider area but illustrations of many of those described before but not figured. It is however not merely a supplement, for the Natural Orders and most of the genera and species are given again with reference to the page or figure in the other volumes. The first volume was not by any means a com- pilation of previously published work ; it was based on the author's own collections, supplemented by those of Sir Alfred Bourne, and others, and was conspicuous for evidence of real research, the correctness of the naming being authenticated by reference in most cases to the actual type sheets of the species. The present volume which has been produced in India is necessarily without these references. Another difference is in the absence of the short notes on the origin of the names or the natural history of the species which added so much to the interest of the first volume. It contains a few corrections of errors, as Vernonia Bourneana for V. cormorinensis ; and changes of name, in which the author has taken advantage of the published parts of Gamble's Flora of the Madras Presidency. Chief of these that we notice are Schefflera for Heptapleuron, Centella asiatica for Hydrocotyle as., Korthasella japonica for Viscum Jap., and Asparagus Fysoni for A. subu- latus; and in a note on botanical nomenclature the author explains the reasons for changes of this sort, a note which will be apprec ated by those to whom such changes might otherwise appear unnecessary and irritating.
Of the 296 full page illustrations most are by the author's wife and are remarkably natural and true to the fresh plant. Among much that is good we would specially point to her Compositae and Loranthaceae, and to the author's Gramineae and Cyperaceae, in all of which : the dissections are also good.
The printing of the letter press is up to the high Standard of Vol. I, and though the lines of the figures are sometimes a little thick, this is perhaps due to the stout paper on which they are printed. But the book has suffered from the author's inability to see it through the press, there being several misprints in the latter half, and several of the illustrations being upside down
