NEW PUBLICATIONS. 375 
advisable to print off 200 pages as a first part, hoping to be able next 
year to send out a second part, and a third in 1870. The whole is to 
be ultimately published “in the usual way." 
The nature of the book is best expressed in its author’s words ; it 
is “a corrected condensation of the original work,” that is, it is 
almost rewritten, and replaces altogether the first three volumes of the 
old ‘Cybele’ and the ‘Supplement,’ whilst the fourth volume of that 
work remains as a second volume to the * Compendium.’ 
“ Introductory explanations” occupy seventy-eight pages, and re- 
late to the divisions of Great Britain and the zones of climate, illus- 
trated by a map, and to the “types " of distribution, and claims to 
nativity of British species. In the main, all this is the same as that 
given in the original work, but it has been much condensed and sim- 
plified, and is a clear and terse exposition of the subjects treated of ; 
the explanation of the “‘ types ” has been much improved ; and we are 
also glad to see the introduction of a useful term, ** casual,” for ex- 
pressing a chance straggler from cultivation. In pages 43-59 Mr. 
Watson has thought fit to go into the Darwinian theory at some 
length; he shows with considerable force that the process called 
“natural selection” can never originate either varieties or species, 
though it may conserve them; and he also brings out more clearly an 
idea hinted at in the ‘ Supplement,’ p. 32, that the convergence of the 
characters of nearly-allied species should be allowed more weight in 
attempting to account for the production of varieties. This is a sug- 
gestive notion, though somewhat difficult to lay hold of, and seems 
deserving of attentive study and consideration. 
Only the “natives” and the “ denizens ” and “ colonists ” are to be 
included in the two first parts; the “ aliens,” “ casuals,” extinct 
species, and plants erroneously recorded, as well as all the recent 
segregate species, the distribution of which is as yet imperfectly ascer- 
tained, will be treated of in an appendix or general commentary, 
which will, it may be supposed, form part three. We hope that the 
exotic distribution of the introduced species will be shown as fully as 
in the case of the natives. With the important exceptions just men- 
tioned, the present part contains the species of the ‘ London Catalogue 
of British Plants’ (ed. 6) as far as Linnea borealis, i. e. 487 species. 
'The number prefixed to Linnea is 511; but the remarks on this sub- 
ject we had occasion to make when noticing the * London Catalogue ° 
