200 Reviews. | Jan. 
LOCAL FLORAS.* 
Tue highest attainment of Natural-History science is to describe 
accurately the living inhabitants of the earth. This can only be done 
by the slow and laborious process of making catalogues of the plants: 
and animals of particular localities. Such catalogues are of little use 
to those ignorant of natural-history studies, and can only be compiled 
by those who have made the greatest progress, and are competent 
critically to pronounce that the forms alleged to have been found in 
a particular locality are truly the forms named by some standard 
authority. It is no wonder then, that so little has been done towards 
giving an exact account of the animals and plants of any particular 
district. Of all parts of the world, the British Islands afford the 
best opportunity for such a study, and perhaps there is no country 
where so much has been done in this direction. 'The work is, how- 
ever, still very imperfect. Our lists of animals and plants, such as are 
comprehended in our Floras and Faunas, do not pretend to give the 
localities, excepting generally where any particular species has been 
found to occur. ‘The relation which a local Flora bears to a general 
Flora, is well seen in Professor Babington’s ‘ Manual of the British 
Flora,’ and his list of plants in the ‘Flora of Cambridgeshire.’ In 
the one, the species of plants are given which occur throughout Great 
Britain, and the locality is only generally stated by the county or dis- 
trict in which it grows; in the other, every locality in which a par- 
ticular plant is known to occur, is given. 
It is only when plants and animals are studied in the last- 
mentioned way, that the causes of their growth and distribution 
can be expected to be discovered. It is evident to all who pass 
through a limited or large space of country, that the growth of plants 
is very varied, and no one can fail to be impressed with the fact, 
that there are certain causes acting which produce this great variety 
of distribution. A cursory examination shows that such influences as 
temperature, moisture, water, and composition of soil are at work, and 
general laws can be laid down according to which certain groups of 
plants are found to flourish or disappear. It is, however, as we come 
to examine individual species, that we find no explanation can be 
given of their absence and abundance ; and closer observation of the 
connection between each species and the soil, and other conditions of 
their growth, are demanded for the purposes of satisfactorily affording 
the basis of the laws of their distribution. Much has been done in 
this direction, and we are indebted to the laborious efforts of Mr. H 
C. Watson, to reduce to something like general order what is at pre- 
sent known of the distribution of English plants. 
Apart, however, from the scientific interest that attaches to the 
* *Blora of Surrey; or, a Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Trees found 
in the County.’ By James Alexander Brewer. London: J. Van Voorst. 
‘Flora of Marlborough; with Notices of the Birds and a Sketch of the Geo- 
logical Features of the Neighbourhood.’ London: J. Van Voorst. 
——— Oe ae 
