378 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
cious variety of M. annua growing as a weed in a vegetable garden at - 
Stoke Damarell, on July 11th, 1863. 
^Malazis paludosa, SwH-A single plant, in a bog on a common 
between Combemartin and Trentishoe, North Devon. August 10th, 
1863. 
"The: places mentioned above are all in Devon when the county is 
not named, 
TERE T. R. ARCHER BRIGGS. 
NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
Hop : 
mr 4 
On the Popular Names of British Plants, being an Explanation of the 
f Origin and Meaning of the Names of our indigenous and most commonly 
“cultivated Species. By R. C. A. Prior, M.D., Fellow of the Royal 
: College of Physicians of London, and of the Linnean and other 
_ Societies; translator of ‘Ancient Danish Ballads.’ Williams and 
^ Norgate. 1863. 
.. A work on the origin and meaning of the popular names of English 
plants, by one who is at once a botanist and a philologist; is both a 
desirable and a welcome addition to the literature of our science. ` Tt 
is singular, that while so much attention has been paid to the deriva- 
tion of the so-called classical (but which are, for the most part, semi- 
barbarous) names by which plants are known to the scientific student, 
so little has been done for the elucidation of those popular appellations 
which may more justly be considered as their own. In the work be- 
fore us this great deficiency is well supplied by one whose acquaintance 
with Teutonie and Seandinavian literature, as well as with the Greek 
and Latin and their derivative tongues, peculiarly qualifies him for what 
must be acknowledged to be a very difficult task. That he has exe- 
cuted it with a conscientious determination to spare no labour of inves- 
tigation, and to give a fair and candid consideration to every sugges 
tion, whether originating in his own mind or proposed by others, will 
be evident to all who consult his work, even in a cursory’ manner. 
With this view, he has not only carefully studied the older English 
writers, especially the simplers and herbalists, but has compared them 
with glossaries both published and manuscript, and with writers of the 
