128 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Scully as the editors. These gentlemen have discharged as a duty 

 the trust committed to them, and to their labours we owe the hand- 

 some volume just issued. A comparison of the two editions shows 

 how much has been done during the past thirty-two years in filling 

 gaps in the earlier records ; while the small number of actual 

 additions to the flora as a whole (18 species and subspecies, of 

 which one-third are more or less open to suspicion of having been 

 introduced recently by man) warrants the belief that few plants not 

 introduced by man remain to be discovered in Ireland. The total 

 number of plants accepted as Irish is actually less than in the first 

 edition, owing to the exclusion of several that had been included on 

 evidence since proved insufficient. The " Editors " have not merely 

 edited the book. While endeavouring to give full effect to the views 

 of Mr. More, they have made several innovations, which are clearly 

 indicated in the preface. The orders, genera, and species are 

 rearranged in accordance with the sequence in the ninth edition 

 of the "London Catalogue," though the names of species have not 

 been followed. Among the new features are " reference to the soil- 

 relations of plants where well marked ; vertical ranges of all species 

 not distinctly lowland ; and introduction of the more widely current 

 Irish plant names." The " Introduction " also has been recast and 

 expanded. It treats of the origin and relations of the varied consti- 

 tuents of the flora, and is worthy of careful perusal. An " Alpha- 

 betical List of the principal Books, Papers, MSS., and Herbaria 

 relating to the Flora of Ireland," coming down to 1897, forms a 

 valuable aid to students of topographical botany. 



" Excluded species," i.e., " errors, casuals, and aliens not fully 

 naturalised," are grouped together in an appendix. There is room 

 for difference of opinion on the best mode of treating such plants ; 

 but, in view of the fact that the line of division is often very difficult 

 to draw (and, indeed, is often dependent on the personal view of 

 the recorder), while many of the weeds of cultivated ground, though 

 admitted without question into "floras," are only introductions of 

 very early date, there are strong reasons in favour of the more 

 convenient method of including all in one series, with clear 

 indications of their actual rank in the flora, as native or otherwise. 



The book can be warmly commended to all interested in 

 topographical botany, especially of the British Islands. 



