1046 



excused for overlooking it. The omission of Wales, also, may have 

 been intentional, in the belief that the species has become extinct 

 there. We cite this instance only in illustration of the kind of inac- 

 curacy in the work, and not as an example for which the Author can 

 be censured. 



But the inaccuracy becomes censurable when we see the habitats of 

 Lastrasa Fcenisecii given as " Ireland, North England." We believe 

 that the first particular notice of this Fern, as an English species, was 

 made by the Rev. W. T. Bree, in a list of Cornish plants, nearly 

 twenty years ago. And though it certainly has occurred in some 

 northern counties of England, it appears to be far more a southern 

 than a northern fern, and therefore the express limitation to the North, 

 and implied exclusion of the South, is one of those careless inaccu- 

 racies which are censurable on account of their tendency to mislead 

 botanists who use the work, by indirectly misrepresenting well-ascer- 

 tained and long-recorded facts. Of the three English counties men- 

 tioned for the species in ' Newman's History of British Ferns,' two are 

 quite southern, Cornwall and Sussex ; the other is Cumberland. 



So, again, the habitats of Scheuchzeria palustris are cited as 

 "Yorkshire, Vosges, Germany." Of course, any reader of 'The 

 Tourist's Flora,' who relies upon the Author's fidelity in stating habi- 

 tats, will suppose that the Scheuchzeria is not known in any other 

 county of Britain ; or, at least, was not so known up to the year 1850. 

 But in the second volume of the ' Cybele Britannica,' published in 

 1849, four other counties are mentioned for it, and two of them by no 

 means recent discoveries. In the ' New Botanist's Guide,' published 

 in 1835 and 1837, the counties of Salop and Perth are reported, in 

 addition to that of York ; and there are other and earlier records for 

 the plant in those two counties. Here, we may say, that the Author 

 has not made any attempt to ascertain and give the present state of 

 knowledge on his subject, but has idly repeated only what was known 

 a quarter of a century ago. 



We could cite many such instances, but three or four will suffice to 

 show that we do not censure ' The Tourist's Flora' in this particular 

 without good grounds for doing so. One more example shall be 

 given, because the plant has excited lively attention and interest 

 among British botanists, and even in some degree among continental 

 botanists also. The Anacharis Alsinastrum of Babington, appears in 

 the work of Mr. Woods under the name of Udora occidentalis. The 

 habitats are thus indicated, " Damschen See near Stettin, Pomerania. 

 Leicestershire." Truly, the readers of the ' Phytologist' will be sur- 



