INVESTIGATIONS INTO APPLIED NATURE. 153 



and commission occur with regard to capitals at the beginning 

 of specific names; Lathynis aphaca, L. nissolia, Pninus cerasus, P. 

 avium, P. padiis, Pijrus aria, and P. aucuparia are, unfortunately, 

 only a few cases out of many ; Brassica Nigra and Lepigonum 

 Salinum appear. What is " Montia fontinalis, L. " ? 



To turn to another subject, Mr. Murray seems to have taken 

 great pains to weigh the claims of many species to the names of 

 native, colonist, &c., but inconsistently admits others on evidence 

 as slender as the former is complete. It seems rash to include as 

 natives, Galium erectum; from a single locality on a wall ; Silene 

 conica, a few plants on Minehead Warren ; Chenopodium ficifuUum , 

 occurring very rarely in cultivated and waste ground. All three 

 are reported from other counties under similar conditions as un- 

 doubtedly introduced. There may be some little doubt about 

 these, but what must be said of Lythrum Hyssopifolia ? This is 

 entered as native. "In July, 1882, two plants of this species 

 appeared in my garden at Baltonsborough, on gravel which had 

 been brought from Wells a few months previously " ! Again, some 

 extinctious are included in the list, some excluded, and one casual 

 [Lolium temulentum) is admitted. 



Such slight imperfections cannot be said to mar the usefulness 

 of this excellent work, and Mr. Murray deserves the gratitude of 

 all British, and especially West-country botanists, for placing at 

 their disposal one more really first-class County Flora. 



S. T. Dunn. 



Investigations into Applied Nature. By William Wilson, Junior. 

 London: Simpkins. 1896. 8vo, pp. viii, 143. 



This little book has been sent us to review, but we regretfully 

 acknowledge our incapacity to do this. The following extracts give 

 some idea of its contents, and may perhaps explain our inability to 

 deal with it. 



" Perhaps there is no part of botanic investigation that has 

 been so little written upon as our indigenous flora as food-plants. 

 This, I have no doubt, is owing to the fact that most of our leading 

 botanists are not constantly in the midst of field observations, but 

 only having occasional rambles in rural or mountainous districts, 

 whose collections have been carefully arranged according to natural 

 structure. The physiology has been carefully investigated, while 

 their life-history and natural uses remain almost unrecorded, their 

 medicinal properties excepted, if they come within the bounds of 

 natural uses." (Page 1.) 



"It is most remarkable what I have observed cattle eating 

 greedily, such as Creeping Ivy, which one would think not very 

 agreeable. Laburnum leaves, and so on, while it is as remarkable 

 what they refuse. And this is the proof that they know by instinct 

 what to eat and what to refuse. I am not alone in this view, as 

 Prof. C. C. Babington, of Cambridge University, told me he had 

 seen them scraping on the grass fields and looking about them in 

 such a way as he was convinced that they Avere looking for what 



