2? 8 The Scott is J i Naturalist. 



Turning now to the Flora, in the stricter sense of the word, it will give 

 some idea how complete this is when we state that under each native species 

 or long-established colonist, as far as the end of the Hepaticae, the following 

 items are given : the local name or names, the designations under which each 

 was noted from Yorkshire by ante-Linnean writers, the vice-comital distribu- 

 tion, with an indication of whether any species has been introduced into or 

 become extinct in any such area, lithological or altitudinal distribution in the 

 Riding, whether native, colonist, denizen, or casual, in the Watsonian sense, 

 habitat, frequency of occurrence, season when in best condition for identifica- 

 tion and preservation in herbaria, name of first recorder and date of record, 

 localities arranged under the natural river-basins, with the names of recorders 

 and usual marks of certainty, doubt, &c. Those species regarded as natives, 

 colonists, or well-established denizens, are numbered consecutively ; but 

 "casuals " are not numbered, and are placed between square brackets. 



The Thallophytes have been more briefly treated, and for most of them the 

 information is confined to the localities and habitats ; and under the parasitic 

 and saprophytic fungi the " hosts " are named, so far as observed in West 

 Yorkshire. The extent of the Flora may be realised on an enumeration of 

 the numbered plants in it as follows: Dicotyledons,757 ; Coniferae, 3 ; Mono- 

 cotyledons, 237 ; Vascular Cryptogams, 47 ; Characeoe, 12 ; Mosses, 348 ; 

 Hepaticae, 108 ; Lichens, 258 ; Fungi, 1009 ; and Fresh-water Algse, 382. 



In the three last groups there is evidently a field for the labours of the mem- 

 bers of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, alike to render the records more 

 complete and to bring the arrangement of the Fungi and the Algse into har- 

 mony with the knowledge of these plants that has been gained during recent 

 years. Nor can we doubt that this will be done, and that this defect in an other- 

 wise admirable Flora will be soon remedied. It should not be forgotten that 

 this fault is shared by every local British Flora yet published, and that few 

 attain the degree of completeness (even as regards the Thallogens) of the one 

 under review. It ought to stimulate us, who live north of the border, to emulate 

 what has been achieved in West Yorkshire. 



The Charace/e of America, by Dr. T. F. Allen (Pt. 1., Introduction, 

 Morphology, Classification, 1888, price $1). Our American cousins are 

 proving more fully, year by year, that the Cryptogamic Flora of Europe can- 

 not be thoroughly studied and understood if we leave out of view the work 

 done and the monographs published west of the Atlantic Ocean. American 

 botanists have necessarily had to refer largely to the writings of European 

 authors ; but we find it less easy to realise their claims to our attention in 

 return. Dr. Allen's work on Characeae nominally deals only with the 

 American species ; but, in fact, it is indispensable to all students of the order. 

 The' part now issued is of far more than local interest. A brief introduction 

 treats of the methods of collecting and examining Characese. This is followed 

 by a historical sketch and an exhaustive account of the germination, develop 

 ment of each member, vegetative and reproductive, and of the phenomenon of 

 cyclosis. The last twenty-seven pages are occupied with a synopsis of the 

 species prepared by Prof. Nordstedt to include his recent discoveries down 

 10 1887, and translated and slightly extended (to include new American species) 



