1. THE FLORA OF HALIFAX. 



(2nd Edition) from ' Halifax, D. Bolton,' and Lichen pustulatus 

 similarly. 



As the main features of the Catalogue, as far as it relates 

 to flowering plants have been discussed in a paper on the 

 " Changes in the Halifax Flora during the last Century and a 

 Quarter,'' by C. E. Moss, B. Sc. (Naturalist, June, 1900, 

 pp. 165-172), and attempted explanations of the difficulties have 

 been given both there and under the various species in the body of 

 this work, it is unnecessary to go over the ground again. The 

 principle of selection is the first difficulty ; perhaps the most 

 probable explanation is that Bolton sought to enumerate all 

 the rarer plants known to him, and ignored most of the 

 common ones— a plan adopted in many guide books and 

 county histories. The localities are uniformly given in the 

 case of the Flowering Plants and Ferns, which are numbered 

 consecutively from 1 to 197, but include three others incident- 

 ally. Thereafter " to avoid being tedious " they are omitted, 

 " but the more curious Botanic Reader, by application to the 

 Publisher, may be informed where he may receive ample 

 information." The Musci are numbered from 198 to 289 ; 

 Algae (i'e., Hepatics) from 290 to 315 , Lichen, numbers 

 316 — 433 ; and Fungi, numbers 434 — 489. 



The first work signed by James Bolton appeared in 

 Relhan's Flora Cantabrigiensis, 1785, and consisted of seven 



plates of plants drawn or painted by him, and 

 Bolton's engraved by James Sowerby. In the same 



*' Ferns." year he published the first English monograph 



on the Ferns. This is " Filices Britannicae ; 

 An History of the British Proper Ferns, with Plain and 

 Accurate Descriptions and New Figures of all the Species and 

 Varieties . . . By James Bolton, of Halifax." [London, 

 B. White, 4to pp. xvi. and 59 ; Price in Boards, Coloured, 

 1/ ys. ; Plain, 13s. 6d.] The first volume contains thirty-one 

 copper plates, and the introduction, which is dated August 

 1 6th, 1785, states — "The drawing and etching of the figures 

 are performed wholly by my own hands, from a close and 

 careful inspection of the plants ... I chose to undertake 

 it myself, though I had never before practised the art of 

 etching." It was completed by the issue in 1790 of a second 

 volume, chiefly devoted to the horse-tails, and containing 

 fifteen plates. The illustrations are very beautifully drawn 

 and coloured, and as the criticisms in Newman's ' History of 

 British Ferns ' show, they are, as a rule, also characteristic of 



