104 THE FLORA OF BERKSHIRE. 



though more sparingly, at 500 ft. At the upper station it has the 

 larger form of Plewozia cochleariformis mixed with it, and close at 

 hand are Herherta adiinca and Folijtrichum alpinum. I had pre- 

 viously found it in 1892 on an adjoining mountain on the same 

 watershed, but I do not know at what altitude. This species is 

 given in the Lvndon Catalog/He of Mosses and HepaticcE, ed. 2, for 

 Province 17, North Highlands (Ross, Sutherland, and Caithness), 

 as well as for Ireland. In Wallace's Island Life, ed. 2, it is men- 

 tioned on the authority of Mr. Mitten as being " found in Ireland and 

 the Himalayas, but unknown in any part of Continental Europe," 

 no reference being made to its occurrence in Britain. — Symers M. 

 Mac VICAR. 



NOTICE OF BOOK. 



The Flora of Berkshire ; heing a Topographical and Historical Account 

 of the Flowering Plants and Ferns found in the County; with 

 short Biographical Notices of the Botanists who have contributed 

 to Berkshire Botany during the last three Centuries. By George 

 Claridge Druce, Hon. M.A. Oxon., sometime Sheriff of the 

 City of Oxford, Curator of the Fielding Herbarium ; author 

 of ' The Flora of Oxfordshire,' 'The Flora of Northampton- 

 shire,' &c. Oxford : at the Clarendon Press. 8vo, pp. cc, 

 644. Price 16s. net. 1897 [1898] . 



It is difficult to believe that eleven years have passed since Mr. 

 Druce published his Flora of Odfordshire. Such, however, is the 

 case ; and no sooner was that work out of hand than its author, 

 with characteristic enthusiasm, devoted himself to the investigation 

 of the neighbouring county of Berks. The results of his ten years' 

 work are now before the botanical public in the handsome volume 

 which — in spite of the date "1897" on its title-page— has only 

 been published during the last month. 



As an examination of the new Flora reveals many points which 

 demand criticism, I am anxious at the outset to express my ad- 

 miration for I he zeal and industry which Mr. Druce devotes to his 

 botanical work. There is probably no British botanist whose 

 leisure— which Mr. Druce tells us is in his case "scanty" — is moie 

 ungrudgingly spent in collecting and examining plants ; and I 

 doubt whether any local flora contains the results of more individual 

 work than the book now before me. Not only in the field but in 

 the study Mr. Druce pursues his botanical investigations with 

 unwearying enthusiasm ; and his volume shows an acquaintance 

 with botanical literature as extensive as his knowledge of the plants 

 themselves. 



And yet — the truth must be told — this most recent addition to 

 our county floras cannot be regarded as satisfactory. It is dis- 

 tinctly inferior to the Flora of Oxfordshire, and that in a degree 

 exactly proportionate to its greater pretentiousness. The Flora of 

 Oxfordshire contained about 600 pages ; the Flora of Berkshire has 



