320 



Reviews of Foreign Literature. 



A Flora of the Northeast of Ireland, By S. A. Stewart and T. 

 H. Corry. 8vo, p. 331. Published by the Belfast Natural- 

 ists Field Club, 1888. 



Local floras are always of interest, and when done with the 

 thoroughness of the one here noticed, are of much value and im- 

 portance. The present one follows the usual custom of giving 

 full and accurate stations for all plants of uncommon occurrence, 

 in the counties of Down, Antrim and Derry, including the Bryo- 

 phytes. It demands more than casual attention from the fact 

 that the authors have adopted a rational system of nomenclature, 

 not carried out with the thoroughness that we could wish, but 

 still a great improvement on most works of the kind. We can 

 not do better than cite a few sentences from their preface: *'As 

 to nomenclature, the rule of priority has been observed, and 

 wherever it required the substitution of a less known name, this 

 has been done. * * * Further, there has been an attempt made 

 here to retain in all cases as authority for the species, the name 

 of its earliest describer.'' After the general run of local floras it 

 is really quite refreshing to read Habenaria viridis (L.), Brown, 

 Rhynchospora alba (L.), Vahl., and the like. The most numerous 

 changes of name are made in the Bryophytes, many of them ap- 

 plying to species of American distribution, such as Hepattca 

 coiiica (L.), Lindb. for Fegatella conica, Micheli's genus Hepatica 

 having priority both of Fegatella and of the anthophyte genus 

 of the same orthography, now sunk in Anemone, where we hope 

 it will be allowed to remain. N. L. B. 



The Origin of Floral Structures. By the Rev. George Hen- 

 slow. Pp. xix, 349. Eighty-eight illustrations. 

 The acute Professor of Botany at Queen's College has given 



us, in this latest volume of the International Scientific Series, a 



forcible presentation of the theory that plants altogether tend to 

 repeat their parents and vary, as a rule, only in response to ex- 

 ternal stimuH. In Darwin's view the two innate principles of 

 heredity and variation are constantly at war : spontaneous and 

 apparently purposeless changes continually tend to occur: the 

 new forms survive or perish, by ''natural selection,'' according 



