78 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



proved to be new. Then we spoke of the plants of the whole 

 world ; I gave him 200,000 species as a rough estimate. When 

 his report was published I was startled to find that it stated 

 Mr. and Mrs. Talbot's Nigerian collections numbered 200,000 

 instead of 600 species ! — J. G. Baker. 



REVIEWS. 



The Story of Plant Life in the British Isles : Types of the Common 

 Natural Orders. Introductory volume by A. E. Horwood. 

 Illustrated with 73 [figures from] photographs. 8vo, cloth, 

 pp. xiv, 243. London : J. & A. Churchill. Price 6s. 6d. net. 

 It is forty-five years since Sir Joseph Hooker pointed out, in 

 the preface to his Student's Flora, the need for a companion 

 volume to that work which should summarize "those physiological 

 and morphological observations on British plants which have of 

 late given so great an impulse and zest to botanical pursuits," and 

 held out a prospect that he might at some future time be able to 

 undertake the task. Long as his life was, this hope was never 

 realized, and the need for such a work is far greater than ever. 

 Indeed, it may well be doubted whether any single volume of 

 reasonable extent could adequately present even a summary of 

 such observations, to which would have to be added some con- 

 sideration of the investigations grouped under the name of ecology. 

 The statement in the preface to Mr. Horwood's book that he 

 had " endeavoured to give briefly a connected account of the 

 essential phases of the life-history " in the case of the plants 

 selected for description led us to hope that the scheme proposed 

 by Hooker had at least been attempted ; and the announcement 

 that his " method of description is an advance upon previous 

 works of the kind " induced pleasurable anticipations. We regret 

 that in neither respect have these anticipations been fulfilled. We 

 cannot see that his book as a whole differs to its advantage from 

 many of those already on the market ; from the literary point of 

 view it is indeed distinctly below them, for Mr. Horwood's style 

 is involved, and it is not always easy to determine what he means. 

 This criticism may sound harsh, but we do not think anyone w^ho 

 will read the first five paragraphs of the Introduction will consider 

 it too severe; we will quote only the fifth. Having told us that 

 " physical surroundings play a great part in the shaping of species, 

 apart from their diversity and the fact that these diversities are 

 correlated with plant distribution and plant variation," Mr. Hor- 

 wood continues : — 



" But this is not all, for we learn from the character of the 

 surroundings its requirements as regards light, heat, moisture, 

 altitude, soil, &c., and the manner in which the plant occurs, 

 either in small communities, large ones or otherwise helps us to 

 obtain a much broader and more intelligent view of the vegetation 

 of a district, or its physiognomy on a large scale, which in turn 



