HANDBOOK OP SCANDINAVIAN FLOEA. 381 



" Ill-health may be a very real malady to the being who suffers 

 it, and yet none other be prepared to call the sufferer diseased ; 

 and such a remark applies to living beings of all kinds, from oxen 

 to mice, and from trees to mosses — they may be in a condition so 

 dangerous and threatening to their own existence, that the least 

 observant would agree to their being called diseased as soon as the 

 fact was demonstrated to him, though otherwise he might go on 

 never so much as suspecting that their health was affected." 



This is prefaced by the remark that "most readers will probably 

 agree generally with the following statements." So they might, if they 

 only could understand them. It would be highly injudicious to combat 

 anything so vague both in sense and in grammar. One is not surprised 

 that the next sentence begins, " The explanation of this puzzle," 

 &c., but it turns out that the sentence is not intended for a puzzle — 

 only the sense. At the same time, it would be grossly unfair to 

 the book to leave it with the implication that this is a specimen of 

 its style. All that is meant is that it by no means comes up to the 

 high standard of ' Timber, and its Diseases.' 



The well-known types of Plant-disease and a few others less 

 known are treated of, and a valuable amount of information is 

 conveyed. Prof. Ward's name is a sufficient guarantee of the 

 thoroughness with which this is done ; and in point of fact there is 

 no want of care as to accuracy. There is, besides, one thing in this 

 little book which has been absent from previous general treatises on 

 plant-diseases, except Hartig's, — the true pathological standpoint 

 is held, — though here again with far less success than in the work 

 on timber. This is probably to be explained by the limited character 

 of the latter subject, and the better opportunity for an all-round 

 view of it. George Murray. 



C. J. och C. Hartmans Handbok i Skandinaviens Flora, innefattande 

 Sveriges, ISorges, Finlands och Danmarks Ormhunkar och Fanero- 

 gamer. 12th ed. Edited by T. 0. B. N. Krok, with the 

 assistance of eleven others. Stockholm. June, 1889. First 

 Part, pp. 1-128. Price 2s. 



The publication of the first part of this Flora, ten years after 

 the 11th ed., and seventy years after the first, is an event for which 

 British botanists may well be thankfal, so closely is our Flora allied 

 with that of Scandinavia. It is now desired merely to call attention 

 to the commencement of the work, of which, when completed, we 

 hope to give a careful analysis. Two or three matters will here 

 only be noticed. 



It seems a pity that, the system of Fries being abandoned, the 

 modified one of DeCandolle, now usually taken up, should not 

 have been used, instead of the somewhat hybrid one adopted, after 

 " Bartling-Braunlichlereska." This first part commences with the 

 Ferns and allies, the ''Gymnosperms and Monocotyledons ; Flu- 

 viales, Liliacese, Orchideae, Typhoideas, and Juncaceae." 



The Ferns and allies seem very well done. The Fluviales 

 (by Dr. Almquist) are disappointing to those who know how care* 



