240 THE JOURNAL OF UOTANY 



HE VIEWS. 



Manual of British Boiaiiy containing the Flowering Plants and 

 Ferns arranged according to the Natural Orders by Charles 

 Caudale Babixuton, M.A., F.R.S., E.L.S., late Trofessor of 

 Botany in the University of Cambridge. Tenth Edition with 

 amended Nomenclature and an Appendix edited by A. J. 

 AViLMOTT, B.A., F.L.S., Assistant in the Department of Botany, 

 British Museum. Small or. 8vo, pp. liv, 612. Thin i)aper. cloth 

 limp. 10^'. net. Gurney & Jackson. 



A publishers' note informs us that " the demand for this 

 Manual, which for seventy years has been the only critical work, in 

 a ix)rtable form, on the J^ritish Flowering Plants, Ferns, etc., has 

 necessitated the ])reparation of a Tenth Edition " ; this, Mr. Wilmott 

 tells us in his preface, " is, with two exce]jtit)ns, a re])rint of the last : 

 at the late Mrs. Babington's recjuest 1 undertook to bring the 

 names np to date, and to add a short apj)endix to include the 

 most important additions to our knowledge of the Britisli flora." 

 There is, however, a curious alteration on the titlepage for whieli, 

 we understand, tlie publishers are responsible, whereby the words 

 '*the late," prefixed in the ninth edition to the author's name, are 

 ti-ansferrcd to his Cambridge a})pointment, thus suggesting tliat 

 Babint>ton still lives but has abandoned his professorsliij). Another 

 eccentricity, for which we presume the ])ublishers are also i-esponsible, 

 is the citaticm of "press notices of the third edition," the ])resent 

 bein^ the tenth. They are, however, to be thanked tor the convenient 

 ^'orm in which the edition is produced ; thin paper, limp binding, and 

 rounded corners make it a ])Ocketable volume. 



The mention of the ninth edition brings us at once to a serious 

 omission which, both fi-om a botanical and a bibliogra])liical stand- 

 point, detracts from the value of the ])rescnt issue, l^eyond the 

 reference to "the last" edition quoted above, we find no reference to 

 the ninth ; and the work of Messrs. Groves, which greatly increased 

 its usefulness and indeed gave the Manual a new lease of life, is not 

 even alluded to. Babington's i)reface to the eighth edition (1881) — 

 the last for which he was responsible — is rightly reprinted; but the 

 preface to the ninth (1904) which is equally essential to the under- 

 standing of the volume is omitted. We trust that, in the event of a 

 reissue, this serious defect will be repaired, or at least that the blank 

 page following Mr. Wilmott's preface will be utilised so far as to 

 convej^ some of the important information which the preface con- 

 tains ; some explanation is certainly needed of the initials of the 

 brothers Groves which follow the footnotes added by them to 

 Babington's text and, in the absence of any reference to their work, 

 must puzzle the younger students who use the Manual. 



This work included, as stated in their preface, the making of '* a 

 large number of alterations in names and authorities " ; in this new 

 edition the nomenclatui-e has been further " amended," and the 

 Vienna Code has been de]mrted from on the lines indicated by Mr. 

 Wilmott in our last issue (p. 200, n. .")). As to the desirability of 



