202 Reviews. [Jan. 
recognition of the relations of the plants to the soil in which they 
grow, of considerable importance. To the ‘ Flora’ of Marlborough there 
is also added a list of birds found in the neighbourhood of that place. 
We should be glad to see the practice of combining lists of plants and 
animals followed up so that every student of natural history may be 
supplied with a knowledge of whatever forms of life exist around him, 
in whatever direction his particular tastes may lead him. 
Of the two works before us the most unpretending is the ‘ Flora 
of Marlborough.’ It is the production of Mr. T. A. Preston, who is 
too modest to place his name upon the title-page, but he dates from 
Marlborough College. He says, in his preface, the work was “ under- 
taken mainly for the purpose of assisting those members of the 
College who may be fond of Botany.” We are sure all friends of a 
more extended education than is at present afforded in our great 
educational establishments, will congratulate Marlborough College on 
the production within its walls of this contribution to Local Natural 
History. We do not know whether any direct encouragement is given 
to the study of Natural History at Marlborough, but we regard this 
publication as one of many other indications that natural science is 
beginning to excite attention, and its claims to a place in the curri- 
culum of school studies recognized. 
In the list of plants presented by Mr. Preston he confines himself 
to the limit of a circle with a radius of six miles from Marlborough. 
This circle is divided into four districts, and lies principally upon the 
chalk formation, so that little opportunity is given for the compa- 
rison of plants occurring on different geological strata. 
The arrangement of plants followed is that of Professor Babington, 
in the fourth edition of his ‘Manual of British Botany.’ The author 
has done this from the conviction that, although Bentham’s ‘ Hand 
Book’ is extremely useful for those beginning the study of Botany, 
and has many excellent points about it, yet the wholesale manner in 
which Bentham has united what have generally been regarded as dis- 
tinct species, and described them imperfectly, as varieties, have induced 
him to prefer Babington’s book. 
The list of plants is preceded by some remarks on the.‘ Geological 
Features of Marlborough,’ by W. G. Adams, Esq. This essay is 
devoted to the description of too small a portion of the earth’s surface 
to call for criticism, but it is evidently the production of one who has 
studied the geology of the district, and contains an interesting expo- 
sition of the causes that have been at work in the production of the 
chalk, and the beds that lie above it in the neighbourhood of 
Marlborough. We may, however, venture to say that we think the 
Diatomaceous theory of the production of flints in the chalk, as 
propounded by Mr. Adams, is hardly borne out by the facts of the case. 
Whether the silex of flints was once in the form of the skeletons of 
Diatoms is perhaps a question, but we have no knowledge of any facts 
which could lead to the conclusion that flints are produced as the 
result of a conglomeration of the skeletons of Diatoms. 
Of the list of plants we have nothing further to say than that it 
is printed on the plan of Professor Babington’s ‘ Flora of Cambridge,’ 
