1042 



Notice of ' The Tourist's Flora : ' A Descriptive Catalogue of the 

 Flowering Plants and Ferns of the British Islands, France, 

 Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and the Italian Islands. By 

 Joseph Woods, F.A.S., &c. 



This book has been a long time spoken of; and we accordingly pre- 

 sume that it has been long also in course of preparation for the press. 

 It is, moreover, the work of a botanist of many years 1 experience in that 

 somewhat narrow view of botany which regards plants merely as nu- 

 merous single objects, to be distinguished from each other by names 

 and descriptions of external form. Such a work, by an author so qua- 

 lified, we should expect to find good and useful after its kind ; and 

 the expectation is not disappointed by ' The Tourist's Flora.' The 

 following passage, from the Introduction, will let the Author himself 

 explain the scope and aim of his volume : — 



" The intention of the present work is to enable the lover of botany 

 to determine the names of any wild plants he may meet with, when 

 journeying in the British Islands, France, Germany, Switzerland, and 

 Italy. I have chosen these limits as those of the countries most fre- 

 quented by English tourists, and with the botany of which I was in 

 some degree personally acquainted. To have extended them further, 

 would have made my book more bulky, and, I am afraid, more imper- 



various species of Carex ; and, further, that descriptions of the fruit should be drawn 

 up from perfectly ripened specimens alone. It is not before complete maturity that 

 these nerves are to be seen in full distinctness and relief; till then, they often continue 

 wholly or partially obsolete or obscurely manifest, neither can the true form of the en- 

 tire perigyne be so well judged of and described in a green or half-ripe state as after- 

 wards, when no further change of shape takes place, by the dissipation of its fluid 

 constituents. The nerves on the anterior and posterior faces of this organ are left in- 

 definite by nature, nor are their direction and length much more rigidly appointed 

 them ; it becomes, therefore, a matter of importance to describe this essential part of 

 the plant in its most inalterable condition, for the avoiding as much as possible those 

 errors which lead to want of accordance in the descriptions of different writers. My 

 own practice has been to collect the perigynes of all our sedges when dead ripe, and 

 to draw up the descriptions of them and the included seed or nut in that state only; 

 the preserved specimens undergo no farther change by keeping, and remain from 

 thenceforth in a condition fitting them for testing the accuracy of written descriptions 

 in any case of doubt or dispute. If the perigynes be gathered before perfect ripeness, 

 there is a risk of their becoming in some degree distorted by shrinking, and, perhaps, 

 giving false or accidental characters, besides which, they do not in that case acquire 

 their proper colour, and when that is at all peculiar or characteristic of the species, it 

 should never, I think, be omitted in a detailed description. 



