1861.] REVIEWS. 279 



Flora of Preston. By Charles Joseph Ashfjeld, — Parts I. and 

 II., reprinted from the Transactions of the Historic Society of 

 Lancashire and Cheshii'e^ Vols. X. and XII. Read 21st Ja- 

 nuary, 1858, and 16th February, 1860. 



Botany is well represented in Lancashire, though there is no 

 county list of its floral productions extant. There are excellent 

 Floras of Manchester and Liverpool, and a complete list of the 

 plants growing near Preston may be confidently expected. The 

 two parts now before us give promise of a more comprehensive 

 work on this subject. 



Our object in giving publicity to what is now doing in Pres- 

 ton is twofold ; first, to invite those botanists who reside in 

 Lancashire, or who have botanized about the lower part of the 

 river Ribble or along the shores of its estuary, or on the banks 

 of the Irish Sea, to assist the compiler of this new Flora with all 

 the information they can supply about the plants and localities 

 of the district ; second, to induce such of oiir readers as mean to 

 visit Lancashire and the lakes of Westmoreland and Cumber- 

 land, to take Preston in their way thither, and to spend a day or 

 two investigating the vegetation of the sandhills about Lytham, 

 Blackpool, the Naze Point, etc., or to look into the peat bogs, or 

 hunt the moors which are so plentiful in this part of the county. 



We hope that the following list of rarities will be a sufficient 

 inducement to them to take our counsel. 



Our author tells us that Chelidonium majus is now scarce in the 

 immediate vicinity of Preston, " being much sought after by her- 

 balists." We thank Mr. Ashfield for this useful hint ; though 

 there is naturally on our part a desire that no plant should be 

 extirpated and lost in any part of the country, yet we are pleased 

 to hear that there are some who find uses in plants generally 

 deemed worthless. This species in bygone times was an herb 

 of renown ; but now, like many other plants, it is neglected. It 

 is more than probable that the faculty now can obtain many 

 more potent remedies for the numerous bodily ailments to which 

 poor humanity is subject ; still it is satisfactory to know, from 

 the experience of a more enlightened age, that the reputation of 

 our ancestors is not a modern delusion, and that their know- 

 ledge and wisdom were not mythical. 



