BRITISH VIOLETS 23 



BE VIEWS. 



British Violets. A Monograph. By Mrs. E. S. Gregory. With 

 an Introduction by G. Claridge Druce, M.A., F.L.S. 

 Cambridge : W. Heifer & Sons, Ltd. 1912. Cloth, large 

 8vo. Pp. xxiii. 108. Price 6s. 6d. 



This book, the outcome of more than a quarter of a century's 

 special study of the Nomimium section of the genus, is well 

 printed on good paper, with ample margins ; there are thirty-four 

 illustrations in black and white, about half of them full-page ones, 

 mostly drawn by Miss W. Mills : a few are photographic repro- 

 ductions of specimens in the author's herbarium, from which the 

 drawings have also usually been made. Twelve species are 

 enumerated, besides twenty-seven varieties (three new), nineteen 

 forms (one new), and seventeen hybrids; of these last, however, 

 five are variants between V. hirta and V. odorata, one is a 

 compound of three species, and two or three are the product of 

 crosses between a species and a variety of another. At first 

 sight so much subdivision may seem excessive ; it is, indeed, a 

 general tendency of specialists to exaggerate minor differences : 

 still, these exist in nature, and deserve recognition. The number 

 might easily have been increased ; but, on the whole, a middle 

 course seems to have been fairly steered, though the named 

 varieties and forms are by no means uniform in values. 



Mrs. Gregory has been fortunate in her many helpers and 

 correspondents, whose assistance is handsomely acknowledged ; 

 her son, Mr. K. P. Gregory, did much towards the final shaping 

 of the work, and provided several insets of single flowers and 

 stipules. 



Mr. Druce, who also contributed a large and valuable amount 

 of material, gives a useful summary of the progress of violet- 

 study in this country from Lobel and Gerard onwards, including 

 a comparison of the names given in Syme's English Botany, the 

 third edition of Hooker's Student's Flora, and the ninth edition 

 (by Messrs. Groves) of Babington's Manual. 



" In its general lines the arrangement follows that of Borbas 

 in Koch's Synopsis Deutsch. u. Schioeizer Flora (1892), but the 

 omission of such Continental violets as have not been recorded 

 for Britain necessitates some modification of Borbas's system " 

 (Preface, p. xvi.). 



The Linnean Herbarium has been studied, as well as the 

 collections at South Kensington, Kew, and Cambridge; but the 

 localities given are comparatively few, and scant notice has been 

 taken of recent records in this Journal, or elsewhere. The dis- 

 tribution in the case of V. lactea Sm., for instance, is very 

 incomplete ; it is here credited to only six vice-counties, whereas 

 twenty-one are specified in Topographical Botany, ed. 2, and Mr. 

 Bennett's Supplement (1905), and two more are known for it. 

 An identification of the numerous critical forms and alleged 

 hybrids in the National Herbarium would have been welcome ; 



