278 REVIEWS. ^September, 



were ever seen, yet they have been so fortunate as to obtain one 

 voucher, but one only to be credited or to be believed if he asserts 

 a common fact, but to be suspected if the fact be rare. If a 

 British jury were empanelled to try the validity of the claims ol 

 the members of this last class, how many would have their na- 

 tionality admitted ? Could twelve or twenty-four botanists taken 

 from an alphabetical list ever agree about the nativity of one-third 

 of tlie usually reputed British species ? 



The table, Appendix no. 3, is a comparison of the flora oi 

 Essex with the floras of Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Suffolk, 

 and Kent. Why is not Middlesex entered ? We should be very 

 thankful to receive well-defined localities for the undermentionecj 

 plants, entered in the 'Flora of Essex^ as Kentish (see page 430) : — 

 Lythrum hyssopifolium, Scleranthus perennis, Cicuta virosa, and 

 Cijperus longus. Stations for Equisetum hyemale and Sedum 

 anglicum would be desirable. In return for the above requested 

 information, we will tell the author of the 'Flora of Essex ^ where 

 Wahlenbergia hederacea grows in Kent, or, if he likes, conduct 

 him to the very place where it was gathered, not quite two years 

 ago ; and we will tell him where he will see a report of Linum 

 perenne as a Kentish plant. We will also tell him where Car ex 

 extensa grows. We will undertake to show him localities for 

 Symphytum tuberosum and Stratiotes aloides considerably further 

 south than the county of Essex. 



Again, another recent locality will be given him for Lathyrus 

 iuberosus ; and he is welcome to a fresh specimen of this reputed 

 Essex plant from a root which was collected in a county south 

 of the Thames. (Note. Bupleurum falcatum is from the same 

 locality.) 



Appendix no. 6, page 444, contains brief biographies of Ray, 

 Dale, Warner, and the late Mr. E. Forster; the mention of the 

 latter, who lived so long and usefully, reminds his contemporaries 

 that botanists do not live for ever — they are not sempiternal nor 

 perennial. 



In the name of the botanists of England, gratitude is expressed 

 and thanks tendered to the author of the ' Flora of Essex ' for his 

 notice of one of the most distinguished of the modern botanists 

 of the county. He was par excellence not merely the botanist 

 of Essex but of the neighbourhood of London, and of England. 



In our simplicity we asked, when Robert Brown left the station 



