64 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



of flowering, the colours of petals, and the size of flowers must bristle 

 with difficulties, and it has the defect of separating widely plants 

 that should be kept together. Tested by the characters given, a 

 large proportion of the plants could not be referred to their genera, 

 and some not even to their families. There are conveniences in the 

 use of a more or less arbitrary method of working out the name of 

 an unknown specimen, but the Linnean classification is very much 

 simpler and more precise than any other that has been proposed for 

 this end. It is not likely to be superseded by this new method. 

 Mr, Fox is evidently a supporter of the use of English names for all 

 flowering plants in our flora. But, after all, are such names as 

 "Umbelliferous Jagged Chickweed," "Yellow Alpine Whitlow 

 Grass," "Austere Strawberry Tree," "Remote-flowered Sea-lavender," 

 " Small Eight-stamened Waterwort," " Sweet William Catchfly," and 

 " Cow Herb " popular names in any sense or more easy to remember 

 than the scientific names, which are free from ambiguity and known 

 to botanists of all countries ? Where genuine popular names, in 

 common use, exist, by all means use them in works for English- 

 speaking readers wherever their use does not endanger clearness and 

 accuracy. But to strain this desire for English names to the point 

 of translating a scientific name into equally unfamiliar English is 

 surely a mistake. Exception might be taken to various statements, 

 such as leaves of Bog Myrtle "2-3 inches" long, Campanula 

 glomerata beginning to flower in August, stem of " Comarum palustre" 

 " bent down " ; but it is unnecessary to go into details. Part II. of 

 the book gives a list of the greater number of British native and 

 alien flowering plants, in their systematic order, with brief characters 

 of the families and larger divisions. In this list the scientific names 

 are used. References are given from the descriptions in Part I. to 

 this list, and vice versa. For each species in the list an abstract of 

 the distribution in Great Britain is given, the extremes being named 

 and the number of "counties" from which the plant has been recorded ; 

 but the total number of " counties " is given as 1 1 8 instead of the 

 commonly received 112. Several excellent photographs of common 

 plants are scattered through the book. 



I GO A-WALKING THROUGH THE WOODS AND O'ER THE MOOR. 



With Illustrations from Photographs. By Charles Reid, Wishaw. 

 Edinburgh: T. N. Foulis, 1907. 23. 6d.' net. 



This is the third of the series submitted to us for notice, and, 

 like its precursors, it is an excellent little book of its kind. Mr. 

 Reid's pictures of mammals, old and young ; birds and their nests ; 

 and country scenes, are very charming, and have been beautifully repro- 

 duced, while the accompanying letterpress is appropriate. In spite 

 of much that has been done on similar lines, these pictures, seventy 

 in number, hold their own and compare favourably with any we 

 have seen. 



