150 REVIEWS. [May, 



duced his views from a far wider experience than we have had, 

 and he is of course entitled to hold his own opinion. But 

 when we find our botanist of world-wide experience addressing 

 himself to the tyro, and recommending him to embrace, at his en- 

 trance into the study, the same creed which his master has taken 

 years to arrive at, we are struck with the inconsistency ; and we 

 are tempted to say to Mr. Bentham, " Either teach your pupil 

 genera only, or let him learn his details before he is allowed to 

 generalize." We cannot here quote particular instances j suffice 

 it to say that the number of British species of Flowering Plants 

 and Ferns is given in the Handbook as 1,285, and we suspect our 

 condensing author would willingly reduce them to somewhere 

 about 1000. The professed model, in the estimate of the value 

 and limits of a species, is stated to be the practice of Linnasus ; 

 so that everything has been done to bring the actual knowledge 

 of our Flora into conformity with this supposed standard. We 

 find, however, that, in many instances, Mr. Bentham has ex- 

 ceeded the canon of his model, and we fancy that, were the 

 great Linnseus still alive, he would give a " passport " to many 

 species which are ignominiously dismissed by Mr. Bentham. 



We propose, at no long interval, to give in the ' Phytolo- 

 gist ' what may be termed a "concordance" (rather '^ discor- 

 dance ") of British species, where will be plainly seen the differ- 

 ences in opinion now current, seeing that Babington. has 1,495, 

 where Watson has 1,425, Hooker somewhat fewer, and the 

 Handbook only 1,175 (Cybele Brit. iv. 278) ; or, as given by 

 Mr. Bentham, Babington 1,708, Hooker and Arnott, 1,571, 

 himself 1,285. 



A short outline is given of the general range of each plant ; 

 but we would caution our readers that this is far from precise, 

 and cannot, any more than Nymann^s ' Sylloge,^ be used for 

 determining a really difficult point about the nativity of a sus- 

 pected plant. Recourse must in such cases be had to the local 

 Floras of the district nearest our shores, e. g. of Normandy, of 

 Belgium, of Holland, of the " West of France." 



Too often the compiler of the general area is apt to commit 

 the oversight of simply taking the name of his plant from a 

 Flora, without making sure it is not a distrusted native there. 



A short and sendceable introduction to the science and terms 

 of botany is a most useful feature of the '■ Handbook of the 



