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Art. XXXVIII. — Notices of Books Sjc. comiected with British Botany. 



1. A Catalogue of British Plants. Part I. Containing the Flowering Plants and 

 Ferns. By J. H. Balfour, M.D. Edin., Regius Professor of Botany, Glas- 

 gow; Charles C.Babington,M.A. Cantab., F.L.S.; and W. H. Campbell, 

 Secretaiy to tlie Botanical Society. Second Edition. Printed for the Botan- 

 ical Society of Edinburgh. Edinburgh : Maclachlan, Stewart and Co. 

 London: H. Bailliere. Glasgow : Smith and Son. Dublin: W. Curry, jun. 

 and Co. Paris : J. B. Bailliere. Leipzig : J. A. G. Weigel. 8vo. 1841. 



The various improvements manifest in the new edition have greatly enhanced the 

 value of this Catalogue, both as a medium of communication and a manual for re- 

 ference. Not the least of these improvements we consider to be the change of form ; 

 for instead of the unwieldy folio sheet, we now have a greater amount of information 

 compressed into a neat octavo. One grand feature of the new edition consists, how- 

 ever, in numerous changes of nomenclature ; the names of the editors are a sufficient 

 guarantee that these changes have not been lightly or unadvisedly made, and their 

 reasons for making them will be seen in the following extract from the Preface. " In 

 drawing up the Second Edition of the Botanical Society's Catalogue, the compilers 

 have been desirous, as far as possible, to make the nomenclature of British plants cor- 

 respond with that adopted by the best continental writers. In doing this, they have 

 been forced to make many alterations, the importance of which will, it is hoped, be re- 

 cognized by the members of the Society. They have been guided in their amend- 

 ments chiefly by the works of De Candolle, Koch, Nees von Esenbeck, Kunth and 

 Leighton. When the name of a genus or species has been changed, reference is made 

 to the name under which it appears in the fourth edition of Sir AVm. Hooker's British 

 Flora. The sources whence new species are derived are indicated by reference to the 

 works from which they are taken, and when they are still unpublished as British plants 

 they are marked as additional species." 



The importance of following some uniform system of nomenclature cannot be dis- 

 puted : and anticipating as we do, a very wide circulation for the Botanical Society's 

 Catalogue, we would venture to suggest to our correspondents the expediency of their 

 adopting it as a standard for names in drawing up local lists of plants. We would 

 even go so far as to recommend that the alphabetical arrangement of the Catalogue 

 should also be strictly adhered to ; for we consider the systematic arrangement of spe- 

 cies in a merely local list, to be a matter of minor importance. The neutrality of the 

 alphabetical arrangement, setting aside its convenience, will surely go far towards re- 

 commending the Edinburgh Society's Catalogue as a model worthy of being adopted 

 by botanists engaged in framing local lists of British plants, whether the Linnseau 

 or the natural system may stand highest in their favour as the principle on which a 

 general Flora ought to be arranged. 



In comparing the enumerations of the plants in the two editions of the Catalogue, 

 we observe that the new one contains a numerical preponderance over its predecessor, 

 of 13 species and 90 varieties, and includes 24 species not contained in any other list 

 of British plants. 



