Bibliographical Notices. 203' 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



The British Flora, comprising the Phcenogamous or Flowering Plants 

 and the Ferns. The 7th edition, with Additions and Corrections, 

 &c. By Sir William Jackson Hooker, K.H., D.C.L. &c. &e., 

 and George A. Walker Arnott, LL.D. &c. &e. Longman 

 and Co. 1855. Pp.618. 



Having reviewed at considerable length the sixth edition of the 

 * British Flora,' we do not think it necessary to say much about the 

 seventh. The plan of the work is unchanged, as are also for the 

 most part the principles and opinions of its authors ; nor have the 

 last five years been by any means fruitful of discoveries in British 

 botany. The remarks on species have frequently been abbreviated ; 

 many doubts have been more cautiously worded, and the imaginary 

 grounds for them judiciously suppressed. Nearly every page still 

 reminds us that we have to do with men more conversant with books 

 and herbaria than with living uncultivated nature, who prefer tradi- 

 tion to observation, have a morbid horror of whatever is difficult to 

 discover or to describe, and look down with something very like 

 contempt on the habitual study of the vegetation of our own islands. 

 But we are glad to recognize likewise sundry indications of an in- 

 creasing disposition to do justice to the present race of botanists : 

 and occasionally, as before, the Authors' extensive knowledge has 

 enabled them to throw light on difficult questions, especially of syno- 

 nymy. It is a pity that they have not examined more carefully the 

 records of English periodical and other works. This remark applies 

 particularly to the distribution of plants. They give so many loca- 

 lities that the omission of others in different districts destroys the 

 value of their information as far as botanical geography is concerned. 

 Mr. H. C. Watson's * Cybele Britannica ' alone (mentioned, by the 

 way, in the Introduction) would have supplied many untoward 

 omissions. We may mention in particular the case of the Cumber- 

 land habitat for Lychnis alpina, respecting which the old sceptical 

 observation remains, though Mr. Daniel Oliver (Cyb. Brit. iii. 160) 

 has lately verified its genuineness. Perhaps their rashness in dealing 

 with the foreign distribution of plants as bearing on questions of 

 British nativity may be excused by the comparative neglect with 

 which this interesting subject has been treated : but it is strange 

 that they do not see, as we formerly pointed out (vi. 383), that their 

 argument against the nativity of Thesium humile would be equally 

 valid against that of T. humifusnm ; and this is by no means a solitary 

 case. On the subject of hybrids, their extreme anxiety to repudiate 

 new species has led them into a curious inconsistency. In the 

 Introduction (p. x.), Linnseus's maxim that no permanently fertile 

 hybrids can be produced between truly distinct species is adopted, 

 apparently on the authority of his ipse dixit ; and from this maxim, 

 in conjunction with Dr. Bell Salter's experiments respecting the 

 supposed Geum intermedium^ the specific identity of G. rivale and 

 6r. urhanum is deduced : whereas we are still told, in a note to the 



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