Bibliographical Notices. 295 



which have been exercised in the compilation of this excellent Cata- 

 logue, which for usefulness and comprehensive completeness very 

 far exceeds the former edition, and indeed every other existing cata- 

 logue. It is, in fact, a perfect Manual of British Botany. The ar- 

 rangement is alphabetical, each genus having its authority appended 

 with the Linnaean Class and Order, and the Natural Order according 

 to the classification of Dr. Walker-Arnott in the article ' Botany,' 

 in the new edition of the ■ Encyclopaedia Britannica.' The species 

 are similarly arranged, with the additions of the authority, nature, 

 habit, duration, periods of flowering, and their relative scarcity or 

 abundance and condition in the flora of Edinburgh. In the deter- 

 mination of the nomenclature it has been the aim of the compilers to 

 make that of our British plants correspond, so far as possible, with 

 that adopted by the best continental writers, which has necessarily 

 rendered many important alterations necessary. In these amend- 

 ments they have been chiefly guided by the works of DeCandolle, 

 Koch, Nees von Esenbeck, Kunth and Leighton. To render con- 

 fusion impossible in consequence of such changes either in genera or 

 species, reference is constantly made to the names under which they 

 appear in the 4th edition of Sir W. J. Hooker's ' British Flora.' The 

 sources whence new species are derived are indicated by references 

 to the works from which they are taken, and when they are still un- 

 published as British plants they are marked as additional species. 

 The works thus referred to are ' Supplement to English Botany,' 

 Babington's ' Primitiae Florae Sarnicse,' Leighton's ' Flora of Shrop- 

 shire,' and ' Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh/ 



By far the most important feature of the Catalogue is the informa- 

 tion which it affords to us of the accelerating progress of British bo- 

 tany. The number of Phanerogamous plants enumerated are, genera, 

 523 ; species, 1594 ; varieties, '230 : and of Ferns, genera, 22 ; species, 

 55 ; varieties, 9 : giving a total of genera, 545; species, 1649 ; va- 

 rieties, 239. Of these more than 70 species are not included in the 

 last edition (4th) of Hooker's 'British Flora,' published in 1838 (we 

 mean bond fide additions not arising from mere change of name), and 

 among them are 24 species which are new and unpublished as British 

 plants, and consequently not comprised in any other lists of our na- 

 tive flora. These new plants are as follows : — Alyssum calycinum, 

 Linn. ; Car ex irrigua, Sm. ; Centranthus Calcitrapa, Dufr. ; Cerastium 

 pumilum, Curt. ; Echinospermum Lappula, Lehm. ; Epilobium lanceo- 

 latum, Seb. ; Eranthis hy emails, Salisb. ; Erysimum virgatum, Roth. ; 

 Galium insubricum, Gaud. ; Gentiana Germanica, Willd. ; Linaria pur- 

 purea, Mill. ; Malcolmia maritima, Br. ; Melissa officinalis, Linn. : 

 Nasturtium anceps, Reich. ; Oxalis stricta, Linn. ; Pinguicula longi- 

 cornis, Gay ? ; Ranunculus circinatus, Sibth. ; Ranunculus fiuitans, 

 Lam. ; Scirpus parvulus, R. et S. ; Scrophularia Ehrharti, C. A. 

 Stev. ; Teucrium regium, Schreb. ; Trifolium Bocconi, Sav. ; Urtica 

 Dodartii, Linn. ; and Vicia gracilis, Lois. 



The typography, which is very free from material errors, is re- 

 markably clear and distinct, and by its admirably contrasted variety 

 and disposition all confusion is avoided, the eye at once alighting 



