I860.] REVIEWS. 271 



Manuel de la Flore de Belgique. Par Fran§ois Crepin. 

 Bruselles : El mile Tarlier. 1860. 



The introduction to this work, on the botany of Belgium, 

 occupies 75 pages of the volume, and it contains the following 

 articles : — 1st. Herborizaiions, or what are usually called in our 

 country "botanical excursions." In this article M. Crepin ad- 

 vises the young botanist to limit his observations to a mile or so 

 round about his residence, and to confine his studies to the 

 plants of his own immediate neighbourhood, viz. to the pro- 

 ductions of his own parish or to the environs of his own town 

 or city. In collecting, classifying, and analyzing these, our 

 author very justly observes that one year or one collecting sea- 

 son may be profitably spent. With much felicity he describes 

 the pleasure enjoyed by the neophyte when he succeeds in iden- 

 tifying the first plants of his own collecting, and is able to dis- 

 tinguish an Anemone from a Ranunculus, and Draba verna from 

 Capsella Bursa-pastoris. 



In the second year of study, after the plants of his vicinity 

 are exhausted, the tyro is recommended to extend his prome- 

 nades to remoter places, and to study vegetation under dififerent 

 aspects. Our author's remarks on laying a good foundation are 

 perspicuous, and very judicious. The following is submitted as 

 a sample of the practical character of this part of the work : — 



" Most botanists, botli young and old, invariably follow the track which 

 has been repeatedly trodden by other botanical predecessors. They travel 

 to some noted locality by the same road, go along the same hedge, pass 

 through the same cornfields, search the same bogs, etc., as have been 

 searched by botanists, time out of mind. Hence a locality which pro- 

 duces curious and interesting subjects is often undiscovered for many 

 years, until a stranger botanist, who does not know the famed localities, 

 by accident stumbles upon some rarity produced in a place which the local 

 botanist did not think worth looking into. The route to and from a rich 

 locality should be varied as much as pbssible." 



That our author is well qualified, and therefore entitled, to 

 counsel the younger members of the fraternity, is very evident 

 from one little trait. He recommends the young botanist not 

 to forget slippers when he is packing up his traps for a long 



