Bibliographical Notices, 473 



BIBLIOGllAPHICx\L NOTICES. 



Flora Vectensis : being a Systematic Description of the PhcBno- 

 gamous or Flowering Plants and Ferns indigenous to the Isle of 

 Wight. By the late W. A. Bromfield, M.D. &c. Edited by 

 Sir W. J. Hooker and T. Bell Salter, M.D. London, 1856. 

 8vo, pp. 678, XXXV. Portrait of the Author. Map. 



We have recently received a copy of this valuable and long-ex- 

 pected posthumous work, and have the pleasure of expressing, upon 

 the whole, our high approbation of it. The editors have wisely 

 avoided adding more than was absolutely necessary to the manu- 

 script of our lamented friend ; but, owing to his decease before the 

 completion of his original plan, it was necessary to add the technical 

 characters of many genera and sections of them, and of not a few 

 species, in which the manuscript was deficient. In doing this they 

 have usually adopted the words of Messrs. Hooker and Arnott from 

 their * British Flora,' but in some cases where it was perfectly mani- 

 fest that the author was adopting the arrangement of Mr. Babington, 

 they have taken the definitions from that gentleman's * Manual.' In 

 this we think that they have exercised a sound judgement, although 

 we fancy that they have not always correctly appreciated Dr. Brom- 

 field' s views. But this is a matter of very little consequence, for the 

 value of the work is not at all aifected by it. It is very unfortunate 

 that the author did not leave behind him a more complete account 

 of his own views on these matters, for his opinions upon the best 

 characters to be employed in defining the genera and species would 

 have been highly acceptable, from the attention which he is known 

 to have paid to the value' of characters in the different natural 

 orders. The great peculiarity and value of the book, as it is now 

 presented to us, consists in the elaborate descriptions of the great 

 majority of the species drawn from the examination of very many 

 specimens of each plant. They are by far the most complete and 

 accurate descriptions of British plants which we possess, and strongly 

 remind us of the elaborate and voluminous * Flora Italica' of Berto- 

 loni, but even surpass those of that eminent botanist. From its 

 proximity to the mainland, the Isle of Wight possesses a more 

 extensive flora than is usually to be found in small islands, and 

 therefore this work contains Dr. Bromfield's descriptions of a very 

 large portion of the common plants of England. From the situation 

 of the Isle, it of course does not include the plants peculiar to the 

 more distant parts of Britain. There are many species of which the 

 full descriptions were not prepared by the author, and in such cases 

 the editors have inserted a specific character derived from one or the 

 other of the above-mentioned British Floras, together with such notes 

 as were to be found in the author's manuscripts. For some months 

 preceding his final departure from England, Dr. Bromfield had been 

 inserting in successive numbers of the third volume of the Botanical 

 Journal called the ' Phytologist,' a very complete account of Isle of 

 Wight plants, in which he communicated to the public a large quantity 



