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The Flora of South Africa. by R. Marloth Review by: W. C. W. New Phytologist, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Mar., 1914), pp. 107-108 Published by: Wiley on behalf of the New Phytologist Trust Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2427116 . Accessed: 19/06/2014 03:35 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Wiley and New Phytologist Trust are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to New Phytologist. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 195.34.79.253 on Thu, 19 Jun 2014 03:35:00 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

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Page 1: The Flora of South Africa.by R. Marloth

The Flora of South Africa. by R. MarlothReview by: W. C. W.New Phytologist, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Mar., 1914), pp. 107-108Published by: Wiley on behalf of the New Phytologist TrustStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2427116 .

Accessed: 19/06/2014 03:35

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Wiley and New Phytologist Trust are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to NewPhytologist.

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Page 2: The Flora of South Africa.by R. Marloth

Review. 107

REVIEW.

"THE FLORA OF SOUTH AFRICA," BY

DR. R. MARLOTH.

THAN KS to the munificence of Lady Phillips and to the knowledge and industry of Dr. Marloth, the botanical world is about to be

presented with onie of the most splendid " Floras " which has ever seen the light, containing 180 coloured anid 100 monochrome plates (originals being the work of four ladies and one gentleman), togethler, with 300 figures in the text, of which most of the photographs are by the author, others by Messrs. W. Galpin, J. S. Henkel, P. S. Laney, A. Elliott, E. Dyke, E. J. Steer, I. Miering, J. Belgrove, A. J. Fuller, A. G. Cook, and A. Rogers; some of the sketches, microscopic and otherwise, are by Mr. W. T. Saxton.

The "' book is written chiefly for the general reader and the begininer in botaniical studies." Only the first voltume out of fouLr has so far appeared.

Endlicher's groupinlg of 1840 has been adoptetd, viz., into Thallophyta (Lower Plants) and Cormophyta (Higlher Plants). The latter comprise the Archegoniatx aind Anthophyta. The characteristics of all these groups are briefly described and Ilucidly figured as in a text-boolk, and the principal member s of each group occurring in Soutlh Africa (from Walfisclh Bay to mouth of the Limpopo beinig the northern boUndary, Rlhodesia being excluded) are described anid the vast majority of the nattural orders (" families " in this work) are most gener-ously, beauLtifully andi, in most cases, faithfully r epresented on the coloured plates; but the Mosses, Chenopodiacee, Amarantacee, Nympheacex, Ceratophyllea, and one or two lesser orders, are not so favoured, a fact which the reviewer r egrets, as far as the Mosses and Water Lilies are concerned. The paintings of the entire plant and of the female inflorescence of Welwitschia are, however, very far from doing justice to the beauty, forml and actual colouring of these objects as one sees them growiing in their natural habitat; but this can hardly be expected, for the paintings were perforce made partly from semi-mummified specimens and par-tly fi-om the imagination; the colour of the female cones when fresh is really quite different from that given in the sketch by Miss Dixie; on the other hand the male inflorescence is much truer, although one misses the tinge of delicate green in the cones.

Some of the pleasing features of the book are: the very clear type, the citation of popular names of the plants where known, and the keys to the genera given throughout. The author, who has travelled extensively in South Africa, speaks with authoritative first-hand knowledge of the majority of the plants treated of.

Por those whom no kind Fate leads into the great flower- paradise of the Land of Sunshine in the far South this great book

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Page 3: The Flora of South Africa.by R. Marloth

108 Review.

will come, perhaps, as the next best thing, i.e., if it is accessible, for the price (?2 2s. petr volume) must greatly linmit its circulation, anid one cannot imagine such a work paying its way.

By means of this hook, replete with cleat' descriptions, lavish of beautiftil photographs, splendid with paintings of flowers, and (for the student) well-furnished with genera-keys, the wondrous flora of the Cape (usinig the term in its widest sense) is brouglht one stage nearer to the stay-at-home botanists of Europe, and in a way which has never been equalled before.

One fut-ther point. The reviewer had occasion to mention recently at the Linnean Society that many of the Cape plants in the gi-eenihouses at Kew had grown, owing to the over-moist and under-illuminated conditions, almost out of all recognition to one who knows them in their native haunts; robust plants become drawn, flaggy and often utterly grotesque. Dr. Marloth refers to this same phenomenon in his work: " Protea cynaroides was seen by us in flower at Kew in May, 1911, but the shoots were thin and slender, over ten feet high aindi tied up against a trellis, not stout and robust as on the wild plant." Here, then, we have one more reason for welcoming this unique work; it will help to save home- botaniists ft-om the misleading ideas created fi-om the contemplation of cultivated Cape plants in Europe!

I The leaf, in the living plant, is not split up into ribbons, as is here portrayed.

W.C.W.

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