1904. Reviews. 63 



As far as we have tested it, the summarising of records seems to have 

 beeu carefully done, and we have noted few omissions, although there 

 are many duplications of records. Cesia revohila, Lindb., has been very 

 properly omitted, but another species, Kantia Sprengclii (Mart.), recorded 

 from Tanderagee, Co Armagh, 1898, by Rev. H. W. Lett in the "Moss 

 Exchange Club Report" for 1902, should find a place in our list. 



If we have some adverse criticisms to ofiFer, it is chiefly in matters of 

 detail. Sufficient prominence has not been given to the work of Tem- 

 pleton, who was the first botanist who thoroughly studied Irish Hepaticee 

 Early records are frequently quoted at second hand from Hooker, 1816, 

 or Taylor's work, 1836, when there are earlier ones in Templeton's MSS. 

 For example, on 12th July, 1815, in company with R. Brown, Hooken 

 and Stokes, Templeton collected Cephalozia ctDuifoHa (Dicks.), Plettrozia 

 cochkariforviis (Weiss), Herberta adimca (Dicks.), and other species on 

 Muckish, Co.- Donegal. 



In the Bibliography there is no mention of Templeton's "Hibernian 

 Flora" MS. deposited at the Belfast Museum, College Square, which 

 contains drawings with localities and dates for the Irish species then 

 known. It is a pity that this list is not complete. Reference should have 

 been made to the " Reports of the Moss Exchange Club," 1896 1903, 

 "Notes on Hepaticse of Ulster" {Irish Nat., 1898), and other scattered 

 papers and notes on the subject. If complete, this list of authorities 

 would have been much more valuable than it is. 



In the quotation of records in a list of this kind it should always have 

 plain on the face of it who is the collector and what is the source of the 

 record. In " Cybele Hibernica " and "Irish Topographical Botany" 

 this has been secured admirably by the consistent use of brackets for 

 collectors' names, and italics for authors quoted. We fear that th 

 abbrevations used in the List and the mode of quotation will often prove 

 misleading in confusing authors with collectors to persons not familiar 

 with the facts. 



In the case of the names of species, we note that the customary 

 brackets have been omitted where two authorities occur. This is not a 

 safe practice, though it saves trouble. 



It is well known that Ireland has a very interesting flora of Hepaticae, 

 with a group of Western or Lusitanian species not found in Britain, but 

 peculiar to the Atlantic coast. Botanists will turn with greatest interest to 

 the section headed " Peculiarities of the Irish Hepatic flora " to see if the 

 researches of the last quarter of a century have thrown any further light 

 on this interesting problem of distribution. This portion of the work 

 is, however, disappointing, it is so brief. The example set in the interest- 

 ing introduction to the *' Cybele " and "Irish Topographical Botany " 

 has not been followed. Certain species are classified under the follow, 

 ing headings : — Alpine or sub-alpine Hepaticse, tropical, tropical South 

 American, North American, British, and Irish types. We should have 

 been glad to have further explanations and remarks upon these types. 



