Sir J. E. Smith's English Flora. 169 



his admirable figures of Saxifraga, which would tend, more than any 

 thing, to a right knowlege of the species, in so truly difficult a genus. 



Cucubalus baccij'er is omitted, as not of really British origin. 



Arenaria pcploides : — this is observed to be the Houkenya of Ehrhart. 

 The habit surely separates it from the other Arenarios, and we have lately 

 heard that some intelligent botanist at Edinburgh has ascertained that 

 this plant is constantly diceious. 



Euphorbia is, with great propriety, removed to the Class Monoecia. 



Rosa and Rubus are entirely remodelled : the former is made to in- 

 clude 22 species : the latter 14. Upon these intricate genera, we dare not 

 presume even to offer a remark. We are quite in despair upon the sub- 

 ject, and in a study " of so much conjecture and uncertainty," as Sir 

 James Smith justly terms it, it may be well supposed, that the opinions 

 will be as various as are the Botanists who devote their attention to the 

 subject. 



Potentilla aurea, FrngL Bot. is ascertained not to be the plant of Liu- 

 nseus, but the alpestris of Haller, jun. and Seringe : and Fragaria sterilis 

 is removed to Potentilla. 



We are glad to find, that the author confirms an opinion which we have 

 sometime ago expressed, that Dryas integrifolia of Fl. Dan. may be only 

 a variety of D. octopetala. 



We must now take leave of our learned author for the present. He 

 has still an arduous task before him, in the continuing of the work, and 

 we know that he labours at it incessantly, and with so earnest a desire for 

 correctness of execution, that he sometimes employs a whole day in de- 

 scribing and collecting the synonymy of a single species. We have many 

 active botanists in the kingdom, who are smoothing the way for his intro- 

 duction of the Cryptogamia, with every improvement of the continental 

 botanists. In England Mr Purton, well versed in the Fungi, is zealously 

 collecting materials for a new edition of his interesting Midland Flora. * 

 Mr Hobson has published two volumes of specimens of mosses, found in 

 the neighbourhood of Manchester. Mr Baxter, chief gardener at the Ox- 

 ford Botanic Garden, is editing Fasciculi of the species of Cryptogamous 

 plants, gathered in the vicinity of that classical city. We have elsewhere, 

 in this Journal, spoken of the labours of Dr Greville, Mr Arnott, Captain 

 Carmichael, and Mr Druinmond in Scotland. All and each of these able 

 botanists will have the honour of contributing largely to the completion 

 of the labours of the learned President of the Lirinsan Society, and which 

 will, we are confident, when the materials are properly digested by the 

 able author, combine to form a work, which, of its kind, will not find its 

 equal in any age or country. 



• Midland Flora, or a Botanical Description of the British Plants in the Midland 

 Countks, Qc. by T. Purton, Surgeon, Akestcr ; in 2 vols. 12mo, to which have 

 been added two volumes of supplement. The Fungi here hold a very conspicuous 



|)l.iCC. 



