023 



Notice of ' A Flora of Leicestershire, comprising the Flowering 

 Plants and Ferns indigenous to the County. By Mary Kirby, 

 with Notes by her Sister. 1850.' 



We are glad to have the opportunity of announcing the publication 

 of another county Flora; useful by itself to botanists within the county, 

 but also increasing the usefulness and interest of those previously 

 published, by affording the data for comparisons in local and geo- 

 graphical botany. 



The small volume before us, however, is essentially two works in one. 

 First, we find a list of species for the county of Leicester, with a pretty 

 copious collection of localities for the less common ; the list arranged 

 according to natural orders, and adapted to the second edition (1848) 

 of the ' London Catalogue of British Plants.' Secondly, at the end 

 of the list of species under each order in the series, are various notes 

 on the derivation of names, the medical and other uses of plants, their 

 countries, &c. These notes are of course compilations or repetitions 

 from other works, and have no special reference to Leicestershire or 

 to the plants of Leicestershire. We think it would have been better 

 to have printed them as a second part or an appendix to the true 

 Flora of the county ; and thus to have avoided the many awkward 

 breaches of continuity in the list of species. 



With some few exceptions we judge the list of species to be accu- 

 rate, and perhaps nearly complete for the county. Few of the species 

 enumerated are those decidedly unlikely to occur in that part of Eng- 

 land ; and among the likely species there are not many absentees. 

 As an instance, however, on both sides, we may mention that Tofieldia 

 palustris is entered positively as a Leicestershire plant, while Narthe- 

 cium ossifragum is omitted. Now, judging by their known distribu- 

 tion in England, we should say that the Narthecium is very far more 

 likely to be found in Leicestershire than is the Tofieldia ; and, more- 

 over, we fully anticipate that further investigation will show the name 

 of the latter misapplied to the former in this case, although the 

 authoress informs her readers that she has seen a specimen collected 

 "near Moira, in 1828," by Mr. John Moore, a surgeon in Leicester. 

 Callitriche autumnalis and Circasa alpina may also be entered in the 

 dubious category, although somewhat less improbable than the To- 

 fieldia. 



We regret to see the Sempervivum tectorum, Sedum album, Armo- 

 racia rusticana, and other garden plants, entered among those " indi- 



