188 LA BOTANICA IN ITALIA. The figures are useful also, but very disappointing in so far as no idea is given in any of them of their magnitication or otherwise. Notwithstanding that here and there are insinuated what appear to us somewhat unnecessary or obsolete opinions (e.ff. discussion on hereditary transmission of disease among plants, p. 82 ; views on Lichens, p. 109), these defects detract very little from a work which supplies a want, and which is well worth the careful atten- tion of all students who are beginning the study of Fungi from a systematic standpoint. _____^ John Percival. La Botanica in Italia. Material! per la storia di questa scienzia raccolti da P. A. Saccardo. Venezia : Ferrari. 1895. 4to, pp. 236. Price 10 lire. Prof. Saccardo in this volume gives us a useful summary of the lives of those who have contributed to our knowledge of Itahan botany. It is somewhat in the manner of the Blograjphical Index of British Botanists which was originally issued in these pages, but differs in certain particulars — e. g. living as well as dead authors are included, and botanists of other countries who have written on Italian plants are included. After the name of the author, comes the date and place of his birth and death, with some indication of the position he filled ; then comes a paragraph containing references to biographical notices, followed by one enumerating his works : in some cases further information is given after the name. We may cite as an example of the manner in which the work is carried out, the account of Mazziari, whose Flora Corcirese has been the subject of more than one note in these pages " : — ♦* Mazziari (Domenico), n. Siena intorno 1790 : m. Zante 1857 — nel 1815 era insegnante dei figli del Ministro Medici in Napoli, e fu amico di Tenore e Gussone ; nel 1817 fu professore d'italiano a Corfu, quindi a S. Maura e Zante. Intorno al 1834 fu dirigente di un orto botanico, allora esisente in Corfu. E I'autore della Flora Corcirese stampata negli anni 1834 e 1835 in Corfu nella Jonios Anthologia, come risulta dalle notizie per me tratte dall' Archivio di Corfu dal gentile sig. Spiridione Zervos ingegnere in quell' isola. — HeuJIer, Specimen florae crypto- gamae Septem Insularum editum juxta plantas Mazziarianas herbarii Heufleriani. Vindob. 1861-68 (Zool. hot. Gesell- schaft)— Pn't;^. p. 362— Britten in Jour, of Bot. 1883, p. 355— Sacc. in Jour, of Bot. 1894, p. 373 — L'erbario crittogamico del Mazziari conservavasi fra le raccolte del bar. de Heufler e del Tommasini." Besides the Repertorio biografico dei Botanici," which occupies the greater part of the book, we have the bibliography of the botanic gardens of Italy, and a curious chronology of the principal events connected with the progress of botany in Italy, beginning with 440 B.C. — ** Empedocle di Girgenti espone, primo d'ogni altro,
- Journ. Bot. 1893, 355 ; 1894, 373.
