Scientific Reviews. 179 



So excellent is the composition of the whole work, that, although 

 sitting in our critical chair, we have almost nothing to find fault with. 

 Perhaps among the grasses there are too few of the new, but gene- 

 rally adopted genera, taken up. In Tetradynamia Koniga is re- 

 tained, £Uthough there be an older Kbnigia. " Nomina generica 

 simili sono exeuntia, ansam prebent confusionis," Lin. Fund. Bot. 

 Coronopus is again restored, although even given up by Smith. 

 Arenaria peploides being monoecious or dioecious, (it is ditiicult to 

 say which on account of its long roots,) and having very few and 

 very large seeds, is surely, both by habit and characters, a distinct 

 genus. The Eriophorum gracile of Scotland, at least what was 

 found by Don, has glabrous peduncles, and has nothing to do with 

 the foreign species of the same name, and is a mere state of E. an- 

 gust'ifolium. With regard to the habitats, the size of the work 

 did not permit them to be given at great length, but of those that 

 are given, there are a few which we hope may be altered in a fu- 

 ture edition. Thus the varietj- of Melica ccerulea, (the Molinia 

 depauperata oi Lindlej, and apparently a good species,) said by 

 Lindley to have been discovered by Donald Munro, and, according 

 to Dr. Hooker, by D. Don, was found by G. Don in August 1812, at 

 the same time, and on the same rocks where he met with Astraga- 

 lus campestris : this grass was first named by Don Melica iridi-. 

 folia, but afterwards M. alpina. Convallaria verticillata was first 

 discovered by G. Don in the Den of Reichip in 1790, who men- 

 tioned the circumstance to Mr. A. Bruce, and this gentleman, with 

 the Rev. Mr. MacRitchie of Clunie, only re- found it in 1 792, after 

 a two day's search. It has also been met with by Mr. MacRitchie 

 in Craighall woods near Blairgowrie. Arundo stricta, we are in- 

 formed, existed very lately indeed in the original station. Stella-, 

 ria scapigera, we know not why, has the habitat altered both by 

 Smith and Hooker. G. Don's words are, " By the side of rivulets 

 on the mountains of Badenoch, between Loch Erreachd and Loch 

 Lagan, and by the side of a rivulet on a mountain to the eastward 

 of Loch Nevis, Inverness-shire." Luzula arcuata was first disco- 

 vered by G. Don on Ben Mac Duich, and distributed by him under 

 the name of Juncus nivalis. 



We are glad to see Althcea hirsuta again restored to a place in our 

 Flora. It was first noticed by Hull in his " British Flora," p. 

 155, as having been found at Cobham by Mr. Rayer. We scarcely 

 know why other authors have excluded it ; perhaps through a de- 

 sire of only introducing those plants that are indigenous in the 

 strictest sense of the word ; but in this feeling we do not partici- 

 pate. Foreign authors, as De Candolle, bring forward those 

 species that are perfectly naturalized, as (Enothera biennis, Ttissi- 

 logo frograns, Mimnlus gnttatus, and Eranthis hiemalis. All 

 British authors admit the first, but dismiss the others ; although 

 more than one spot in Scotland could be pointed out where those 

 mentioned above have firmly fixed themselves. 



