72 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



A POCKET-FLORA OF EDINBURGH AND THE SURROUNDING 

 DISTRICT : A COLLECTION AND FULL DESCRIPTION OF ALL PHAN- 

 EROGAMIC AND THE PRINCIPAL CRYPTOGAMIC PLANTS, CLASSIFIED 

 AFTER THE NATURAL SYSTEM, WITH AN ARTIFICIAL KEY AND A 



GLOSSARY OF BOTANICAL TERMS. By C. O. Sonntag. 1894. 

 (Williams & Norgate.) 



We fear that any one who may be induced by the somewhat 

 pretentious title of this little book to turn to it for information will 

 lay it down with the conviction that there is not much to be gained 

 from it save disappointment. The Vascular Cryptogams alone are 

 referred to in it. Several of the additional records of localities are 

 inaccurate. East Linton is not a new station for Papaver dubinm, 

 or Linlithgow for Lepidium campestre, both being given in Balfour's 

 " Flora of Edinburgh." Many plants recorded as still growing in 

 certain localities have long been extinct there. Hyoscyamus niger 

 has not been found by this generation on Salisbury Crags, and it is 

 long since Anagallis tenella bloomed in the Hunter's Bog. Bnnium 

 flexuosum, one of the commonest plants around Edinburgh, is not 

 even mentioned ; whilst Carum Bulbocastanum, a plant which does 

 not occur in Scotland, is recorded as common everywhere in the 

 neighbourhood. , The general get-up of the book is good as regards 

 paper and type, and its form and size render it convenient for the 

 pocket. The vexed question of the use of capitals in specific names 

 is set aside by commencing all specific names with capital letters. 



STIRLING NATURAL HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 

 TRANSACTIONS, 1893-94. 



It is again a pleasure to express our appreciation of the useful 

 and highly appropriate work accomplished by this flourishing 

 Society. The volume recording the past year's proceedings con- 

 tains the fourth part of the valuable paper on the " Flora of Stirling- 

 shire," by Colonel Stirling and Mr. Robert Kidston ; and an 

 interesting and pleasantly written account of the Birds of the 

 Stirling District, based upon the collections in the Smith Institute, 

 by Mr. James Sword. There are other meritorious contributions 

 of a geological and archaeological nature, the whole forming a 

 volume of 206 pages. 



