1864. | Local Floras. 201 
accurate description of plants in particular localities, they have their 
valuo in directing the attention of students to places where they can 
find species which otherwise would escape their attention. It is 
perhaps to this fact that we are indebted for the publication of local 
Floras as separate works at all. The publication of such works has 
been especially called for and produced by the formation of local 
Naturalists’ Field Clubs. These Associations, devoting themselves to 
the exploration of the natural history of the localities in which they 
occur, collect a great quantity of information, and it is to such a 
Society that the public is indebted for one of the Floras named at the 
commencement of this article. 
We are also indebted to other. Clubs in various parts of this 
county for similar works. Nothing can be more conducive to 
health, both of mind and body, than such Associations, and a public 
is thus formed capable of appreciating and using Local Floras such as 
those above mentioned. 
It is also very desirable, when the study of Natural History is cul- 
tivated in schools and families, that guides to the treasures which are 
to be found in the immediate neighbourhood should be possessed by 
the pupils as incentives to the collection of particular or rare kinds of 
natural-history objects. 
It is a mistake to suppose that natural objects can only be success- 
fully studied in their larger or more striking forms; it is the objects 
which are found at every man’s door that become the field for the 
grandest and most important discoveries. Lyonnet has made for him- 
self an undying reputation by the study of the anatomy of the cater- 
pillar of the common privet hawk moth. Huber studied the bees in 
his own garden and the immediate neighbourhood of his residence. 
White has made Selbourne a classical spot for all time by the study 
of the habits of the animals within a mile of his own house. The 
finest illustrations of his beautiful theory of the origin of species 
were derived by Darwin, not from his studies as a naturalist who 
had voyaged round the world, but as a country gentleman who had 
studied the habits of the tenements of his dovecote, and the relations 
of the cats, mice, bees, and clovers in his own paddock. Fascinating 
as the prospect must be to every young and ardent lover of nature to 
traverse the ocean, and view its wonders under tropical suns, or pierc- 
ing the rich forests of the torrid zones, to behold for the first time 
with human eyes, the forms of animal and vegetable life they may 
contain, there is nothing more certain than that the fixed and quiet 
study of natural objects at home can be made as rich a source of intel- 
lectual pleasure, and important discovery, as traversing distant, 
though more fertile fields. 
It is with much pleasure, then, that we direct attention to two 
works which have been recently published on Local Natural History. 
They are both called ‘ Floras,’ at the same time they are both some- 
thing more than a mere catalogue of plants and their localities. “In 
both we are supplied with maps of the district, to the elucidation of the 
botany of which they are devoted. In both we have a sketch of the 
geology of the part of the country in which the plants are found, a 
