2G THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



to have given these as blocks in the text, to which the excellent maps 

 showing distribution form a useful addition. 



An adequate criticism of the text could only be undertaken by one 

 with a more thorough knowledge of the plants described than the 

 present writer can claim. The elaborate division and subdivision 

 of species has necessitated the creation of a number of names : it will 

 take us long to become reconciled to the fact that when we read 

 " Compton in Moss Brit. Fl. iii, p. 09," the reference is to the page 

 actually under our eyes, and indicates that the name to which it is 

 appended is here first published : there is presumably some reason for 

 this departure from custom, but we have failed to find it stated. 

 The notes throughout are often of much value and interest, and add 

 greatly to our knowledge. 



Turning over the pages, wherein it is pleasant to note the fre- 

 quency with which this Journal is quoted, we observe that several 

 plants make their first appearance in a British flora : one indeed is 

 altogether new — the small White Water-lily, usually regarded as a 

 variety of Nymphtea alba, is raised to specific' rank as "N. occidental is. 

 Jersey, it will be remembered, is included in the Flora ; we have 

 thence a remarkable form — "forma luxurious" — of Ficaria; Dian- 

 ihus ff alliens Pers., of which "a single rather large patch" was 

 found "on fixed dunes in St. Ouen's Bay"; and " Ranuncuhis 

 aleae" — a name which looks somewhat less odd when spelt, in 

 accordance with general custom, with a capital letter : it commemo- 

 rates one Francis Alea, who was attached to the Madrid herbarium 

 and discovered it near the Escorial in 1843 : this was first found bv 

 Hunnybun in Jersey, where it is "quite a feature in some places 

 in the dunes: the paler tint of the flowers and the more patulous 

 habit enable the botanist to distinguish it at a glance from It. bul- 

 bosus with which it grows." Several introductions receive the 

 honour of plate and description, some of them we think, on somewhat 

 insufficient grounds— e. g. Tunica Saxifraga, found "at the foot of 

 a land-cliff on ground adjoining a public path near the railway 

 station, Tenby : doubtless a garden escape originally and subsequently 

 self-sown." 



We note that Dr. Moss does not allow the claims of Aconitum 

 Napellus to nativity, but regards it as " a recent escape from culti- 

 vation " : " it is inconceivable," he says " that such a handsome and 

 conspicuous plant could have been completely overlooked or ignored 

 by all British botanists during the seventeenth and eighteenth 

 centuries and the first part of the nineteenth." There is of course 

 much to be said for this contention, but in speaking of it as a 

 " recent " escape, Dr. Moss overstates his case. A reference to E. B. 

 Suppl. 2731 shows that in 1819 it was found abundantly in Here- 

 fordshire, and in 1820 very abundantly on the banks of a stream near 

 Wiveliscombe in Somersetshire — in which county it has all the 

 appearance of nativity — where it extended at intervals for three miles 

 in these localities it must have existed for some considerable period 

 before its discovery. The Steep Holm Peony (Paonia mascxla 

 Miller, 1708; P. corallina Retz, 1783), which "Marshall thought to 

 be native, is regarded as " naturalised " : Smith (E. B. 1513), who bv 



