92 NOTICES OF BOOKS AND MEMOIRS. 



be found even in the remote oases of the Libyan desert. Garlic is 

 likewise cultivated in the Nile Valley generally; besides, Ascherson 

 met with it in the large and small oases, and EohKs"^' in Sinah 

 and Audjila. 



Of the finding of the stems of the i^oisonous shrub Oschar 

 {Calotropis procera, E. Br.) in a stone tomb of the oasis Dachel, 

 Aschersont has given a full account. It may be added that 

 these stems have still a distinct bitter taste. The bitter jDrin- 

 ciple and the fat prove, therefore, far more persistent than 

 sugar, and, of course, ether oils. In the Florentme Museum there 

 are the remarkable distended, almost globular fruits of this i3lant, 

 which are called in Arabic, bed-el-6schar, " the egg of the oschar." 

 This additional discovery is less remarkable than the stem, since 

 the wool of the seed was presumably, as to-day in Soudan, em- 

 X)loyed in stuffing pillows. — A. and M.] 



Dictionary of English Plant-Names. By James Britten, F.L.S., 

 and Robert Holland. Part I. [A — F.] London : published 

 for the English Dialect Society by Triibner and Co. 1878. 

 (pp. 197). 



This is the first portion of a work long announced, and its com- 

 prehensive character justifies delay. It is over ten years since the 

 authors commenced then* collection of local names, and though it 

 is i^robable that even another decade might add a good many more 

 words to the collection here duly marshalled in alphabetic sequence, 

 yet it is well to hasten the publication. It is the nature of such 

 compilations to be never complete, and no doubt botanists and 

 others in all parts of England will be able to add a few names 

 or varieties of names. But it may be safely said that such an 

 extensive series of the names of English plants has never before 

 been seen. This Part only extends to the letter F, but there must 

 be at least three thousand names given. They are drawn from so 

 many and such varied sources that it is clear that the danger has 

 been that of including too much, and failing to di-aw the hne at 

 real names and keej) out those invented by individual writers or by 

 children. The names are evidently of very unequal value in area 

 of use, authenticity, and genuineness. The authors have, however, 

 endeavoured to comprehend all the names now or at any time 

 actually in the mouths of the country people, and the old writers 

 on plants have been exhaustively consulted for such, many of 

 which have become extinct. No "deliberately coined" modern 

 names are included. The earliest occurrence of a name in print 

 is often indicated, but a great portion of the provincial words here 

 catalogued must be hitherto unpublished, being gathered together 

 at first-hand from the people. The names in the various extant 

 MSS. dating before the era of the invention of printing are not 

 included unless subsequently printed. 



The book is not more than it professes to be, a dictionary. 



* • Von Tripolis nach Alexandrien,' Bd. ii., p. 66, 119. 



+ ' Verhandlungeu der anthropol. Ges. Berlin,' 1875, S. 58. 



