MAKERS OF BRITISH BOTANY 63 



Arabic herbalists in Randal Alcock's Botanical Names nor 

 Pulteney's Biographical Sketches are as well known as they 

 should be, and we notice the absence of any reference to the 

 reprint of Turner's Names of Herbes by the Editor of this 

 Journal, or to the full life of Gerard prefixed to Dr. Daydon 

 Jackson's reprint of the Catalogus. 



We are very grateful, however, for what we have ; for such 

 clear guidance as the statement (p. 26) that the five hundred 

 woodcuts of Fuchs's Historia Stirpium " probably surpass in 

 artistic quality any long series of botanical figures that has 

 ever been published," for Dr. Caius's account of British dogs, 

 and for the historical table of botanical terms on p. 349. If 

 Gesner is treated too briefly and Parkinson omitted, we have 

 valuable accounts of Oviedo and Acosta and the American 

 animals which they were among the first to describe ; whilst 

 if Ray, Linnaeus, and the Jussieus are sufficiently well known 

 already, we are glad to hear more of Martin Lister, Robert 

 Hooke, Reaumur, and other lesser lights. 



That Dr. Miall has spared no pains in his loving research 

 into original authorities is seen by the following amusing mare's- 

 nest (p. 149) :— 



" Sprengel, Cuvier, Sachs, and perhaps other historians of 

 Botany mention Henshaw as the discoverer of spiral vessels in 

 walnut-wood (1661). The only ground for this statement and, 

 so far as I can find out, the only record of Henshaw's work in 

 botany is this minute of a meeting of the Royal Society (July 31st, 

 1661) : ' Mr. Henshaw exhibited the spirals of nut-trees, showing 

 that they grow snail-wise ' (Birch, Hist, of Boy. Soc. vol. i. p. 37). 

 These spirals must surely have been hazel-stems strangled by 

 honeysuckle." ___ G g BouLGEK _ 



Makers of British Botany : a Collection of Biographies by living 

 Botanists. Edited by F. W. Oliver. 8vo, el. Pp. 332, 

 with numerous portraits and other illustrations. Cam- 

 bridge, at the University Press. 1913 [1912] , Price 9s. net. 

 The title of this interesting and attractive volume is some- 

 what misleading : for "British Botany" is generally understood 

 as relating to the flora of our country, and the " makers " of this, 

 so far as investigation of the plants of Britain are concerned, are 

 for the most part conspicuously absent. It is true that Hill, Sir 

 William Hooker, and in a less degree Robert Brown, devoted some 

 attention to our native plants ; that the names of Harvey, 

 Berkeley, and Williamson are associated respectively with the 

 seaweeds, fungi, and fossil plants of Britain ; but the long list of 

 those who have devoted themselves to the investigation of the 

 British flora, from Turner and the herbalists through Ray and 

 Withering to Sir J. E. Smith and C. C. Babington, is unrepre- 

 sented. The biographies selected are of those who may be more 

 accurately described as British makers of Botany, for it is their 

 influence on the science as a whole that forms the subject of the 

 sketches ; and even from this standpoint we miss certain names, 



