876 NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



furnish at least half a dozen of M. Gandoger's species. It is 

 somewhat amusing to read the remarks relative to the fixity, &c., of 

 species ; he writes : — " Voila les deux ecoles qui sont en presence : 

 ecole synthetique d'une part, ecole analytique de I'autre. Avec la 

 premiei-e, on arrive logiquement au darwinisme ou transformisme, 

 systeme qui revolte autant par ses consequences que par son 

 absurdite. Avec la seconde, c'est la science scrutee, etudiee, 

 approfondie, livrant ses secrets, etonnant et charmant tout a la 

 fois, par ses resultats, I'observateur judicieux." A few_ lines 

 fiu'ther on, referring to M. Crepin's protest against the unlimited 

 description of new forms, he writes : — "II est possible que pour 

 lui ces nouvelles especes ne soient que des variations d'un meme 

 type. Mais pour nous, elles sont des etres parfaitement distinctes 

 et parfaitement autonomes." The sneering accusations against 

 this greatest rose botanist, which follow, might readily be refuted, 

 but, like the rest of the work, they are of so childish a character 

 as to be unworthy of serious consideration. 



With such works as M. Gandoger's in existence it is evident 

 that some line must be drawn by monographers as to the quotation 

 of synonyms. To burden an account of the roses with the 

 quotation of these 4265 new names would be not only useless, but 

 would encourage this most objectionable practice of describing 

 every trivial form as a new species. 



We trust Mr. Jackson will see his way, in the new " Nomen- 

 clator," to relegate the whole of the names published by this 

 author to the category containing gardeners' monstrosities and 

 such-like. H. & J. G. 



The ' Transactions of the Plymouth Institution and Devon and 

 Cornwall Natural History Society' for 1881-82 contains an inte- 

 resting lecture by our valued correspondent, Mr. T. R. A. Briggs, 

 entitled ' Queries in Local Topographical Botany.' The modest 

 title hardly gives a fair idea of the contents of the paper. It is 

 unnecessary to say that Mr. Briggs stands in the first rank of 

 local observers, and this gives peculiar force to his conclusions, as 

 weU as to the remarks with which he prefaces them. "If students 

 of Nature," he says, "would try to trace out the influences which 

 have been at work in their several neighbourhoods in past ages by 

 noticing those at present active around them, each might in his 

 little sphere of labour, and in proportion to his treasure ol industry 

 and ability, help on the great scientists of the day in bringing 

 forward theories capable of demonstration, because founded and 

 built up on the sure ground of honest and clearly ascertained facts. 

 In preference, however, to undertaking investigations of the kind 

 indicated, many employ their time in writing of evolutionary stages 

 through which, according to their imaginings, species, such as we 

 see them, must have passed to attain their present forms and 

 characteristics." Mr. Briggs takes certain characteristic plants of 

 the neighbourhood of Plymouth, traces their local distribution, and 

 suggests the various causes which seem to have operated in different 



