THE FLOBA OF ANGLESEY AND CABNARVON SHIRE, 817 



The area investigated is divided into three districts, Anglesey 

 being one and North and South Carnarvonshire the other two. 

 The locahties given are not very numerous, but probably sufficient, 

 and the "!" after most of them shows that the author has himself 

 seen the plants growing in the places cited. 



In Anglesey, Mr. Griffith has been preceded by the accurate 

 Hugh Davies, whose Welsh L'ofrt/fo/or/y appeared in 1813, and whose 

 herbarium is in the national collection at Soutli Kensington. For 

 Carnarvon he had no such help ; this is indeed the first attempt to 

 present a complete flora of the county. The number of flowering 

 plants included in the volume is 1119 species and 219 varieties, 

 but among these, so far as we can judge, are included the 

 numerous extinctions, casuals, and errors — at any rate no admo- 

 nitory sign or difterence of type distinguishes these from their 

 more satisfactory neighbours. 



Turning over the pages, we note various points of interest. At 

 the very beginning we must enter a protest against the very large 

 number of manufactured " Welsh " names, mostly taken from 

 Davies, which encumber the book. Mr. Griffith hopes that these 

 will be "of assistance in identifying those referred to in Welsh 

 plant-lore " : but this could only be the case when the names are 

 genuine. It is certain that such plants as Thalictrum alpinnm and 

 T. viajus are too rare to have any popular association, yet each of 

 these is credited with a Welsh name. A large number of such 

 designations are manifest translations of equally bogus " English " 

 names, which ought long since to have dropped out of our books, 

 as they fulfil no useful purpose. 



The plant recorded from Holyhead in this Journal for 1890, p. 

 315, as Hciianthemiim (juttatum, proved on cultivation to be II. 

 Brewcri. : true H. gultatum does not grow at Holyhead. Among 

 the Ruhi are described a new species, R. cambricus Focke ; a new 

 variety, R. mercicus var. chrijsoxijlon Rogers ; and a third, R. 

 Grijfithianus Rogers, described as " n. var. or n. sp." — the last 

 apparently the plant which Mr. Rogers, in this Journal for April 

 (p. 100), thinks " may best take rank as a strongly marked var. of 

 R. 2)rcBruptorum." Rosa Wilsoni still holds its ground at Bangor, 

 though "very rare and only in one spot," which we think need not 

 have been indicated so definitely, for it is suspected that the race 

 of exterminating collectors is not yet entirely extinct. Of the 

 distinct-looking SoUdago Virgaurea var. cambrica Mr. Griffith notes 

 that it flowers much earlier than the type, and adds " We have two 

 other forms growing in Carnarvonshire." It is interesting to know 

 that Dintis occurred in Anglesey last year, though as "the single 

 plant found " was sent to Mr. Griffith for determination, it is to be 

 feared that the species will not become re-established. But Mr. 

 Griffith is wrong in supposing that the plant had not been found 

 in Anglesey since Brewer's visit in 1727. Lightfoot, of whose 

 " Journal of a Botanical Excursion in Wales " in 1775 we have a 

 transcript in the Department of Botany, notes under August of that 

 year : " Anglesea Island. Athnnasin juaritima [Linnfeus's name for the 

 plant] among the sands at Llanfaelag on the west side of the 



