254 ANNALS OF BOTANY. 



is cited iii nine different ways, some of them entirely incorrect, and 

 other variations in citation occur elsewhere. In no case is the page 

 given when reference is made to a periodical publication ; the result 

 being that another index must be consulted, although the present 

 would suffice if the page were added. The arrangement is sometimes 

 by subject, sometimes chronological: complete works sometimes pre- 

 cede papers, at others are mixed up with them ; when another 

 author has united with the subject of the bibliography in the 

 production of any book, the joint works are sometimes at the end, 

 sometimes in the middle, sometimes it is impossible to decide where 

 the joint authorship begins and ends (see p. 410). Of course the 

 large amount of co-operation received is to some extent accountable 

 for this ; but could not the three Editors reduce the material to 

 some uniform arrangement ? The information regarding each 

 botanist is useful, but meagre, although at times superfluous, as 

 when we are told, tout court, that L. Forquignon was "Born" — 

 which we might have assumed from the fact that the date of his 

 death is recorded. But here again we try in vain to discover 

 any principle of working : for example, the memoir of Dr. Boswell 

 given in this Journal is cited, but others published by us are 

 omitted. The bibliography in this instance, taken bodily from the 

 Royal Society's 'Catalogue,' is incomplete. 



The first name on the list is that of Ahrling, the well-known 

 student of matters relating to Linnaeus, who, indeed, edited some of 

 Linne's hitherto uniDublished MSS., but was in no sense a botanist. 

 The "Flora Dalekarlica," attributed here to Ahrling, is printed 

 from Linne's MS., dated 1734, although any one would imagine, 

 from the way in which it occurs in the 'Annals,' that it was a work 

 of Ahrling's, pubhshed in 1873. Hennecart (1797-1888) is in- 

 cluded, we presume, on some grounds known to the editors ; no 

 reason for his inclusion is assigned, unless this is conveyed in the 

 title "Proprietor" appended to his name : proprietor of what/ Asa 

 Gray occupies thirteen pages : but this elaborate enumeration is 

 quite unnecessary in the face of the excellent list of his writings 

 issued as an appendix to vol. xxxvi. of the ' American Journal of 

 Science,' of which this seems to be a clumsy and incomplete re- 

 arrangement, with several added errors. The original list is 

 chronologically arranged and fully indexed, and is thus readily 

 con suitable : the Editors of the * Annals ' have succeeded in reducing 

 it to a complicated puzzle, to which they have provided no key. 



Criticism of this kind is capable of almost indefinite extension, 

 for which the Editors of the 'Annals' have provided abundant 

 material. We may adopt as our summary of the Bibliography in 

 the 'Annals' the words of the preface prefixed by Mr. Burnand 

 to his ' New Sandford and Merton ' — " Other books will [show] you 

 what to do: this book will [show] you what to don't." 



The first part of the new volume (dated February, and issued 

 in March of the present year) contains many papers of interest, 

 already enumerated at p. 12G. We are somewhat surprised, how- 

 ever, to find in so high-class a Journal such a paper as that on 

 "Abnormal Ferns, Hybrids, and their Parents," by Mr. E. J. 



