*14 



NA TURE 



[Sept. 27, i6bS 



which, containing the Soricidce, has been placed by the 

 author at Mr. Blanford's disposal for the purpose. 



The complete though condensed accounts of the habits 

 of the animals described, whenever they are known on 

 good authority, will make the work popular even with not 

 strictly scientific readers ; but all padding made up of 

 ill-authenticated, fanciful, or exaggerated stories, or of 

 personal narratives of sport and adventure, has been 

 carefully excluded, as becomes the character of such a 

 work as this is intended to be. 



One of the most difficult questions that always arises 

 in editing a work on natural history is that relating to 

 the number and nature of the illustrations most suitable 

 for its purpose. Figures are, without doubt, a great help 

 to all classes of readers, and. other things being equal, the 

 more numerous and better they are the more useful the 

 book. But then comes in the question of cost, the bear- 

 ings of which have carefully to be considered from a 

 business point of view. A book that is intended to have 

 a fairly extensive distribution must not be overweighted 

 in this respect, or much of its utility will be lost. Mr. 

 Blanford has evidently considered it best to sacrifice 

 something of artistic effect and uniformity of character 

 in his illustrations, for the sake of increasing their num- 

 ber and keeping the work within moderate compass as to 

 price. With regard to the spirited little sketches of the 

 external forms of animals, many of which are taken from 

 the unpublished drawings of Colonel Tickell and Mr. 

 Hodgson in the possession of the Zoological Society, the 

 work of the Typographic Etching Company answers its 

 purpose sufficiently well ; but we cannot say the same of 

 the figures of the skulls, which compare badly with wood- 

 cuts, of which a sufficient number (mostly, if not all, 

 borrowed from other works) are introduced to make the 

 contrast somewhat striking. These, however, are minor 

 blemishes, which,. we trust, are compensated by economy 

 in production, and consequent advantage to the purchaser 

 of the work ; but the absence of scale to the figures, 

 which is sometimes embarrassing, is an omission which 

 might easily have been rectified. 



The general form and typography of the work are all 

 that can be desired, and we cordially welcome it as an 

 instalment of what promises to be not only a most valu- 

 able aid to the knowledge of the natural history of one 

 of the most important portions of our Empire, but also a 

 standard contribution to zoological science in general. 



W. H. F. 



OUR BOOK SHELF. 



Flora of the North-East of Ireland. By S. A. Stewart 

 and the late T. H. Corry. Pp. 331. (Cambridge: 

 Macmillan and Bowes, 1888). 



Local " Floras " have not been produced at the same 

 rate in Ireland as in England, but Irish botanists are 

 beginning to exercise more activity in this direction. 

 It is true that there previously existed a catalogue of the 

 plants of this region, together with localities of the rarer 

 ones, in Dickie's " Flora of Ulster " (1864) ; and the twelfth 

 district of Moore and More's " Contributions towards a 

 Cybele Hibernica" (1866) is conterminous with the area 

 of the book under consideration ; but both of these works 

 are incomplete, and imperfect in regard to what are termed 

 " critical species." 



The present book, we are informed in the preface, is an- 

 attempt to give a full and trustworthy account of the native 

 vegetation of the counties of Down, Antrim, and Derry ; 

 an undertaking that was projected some years since by the 

 late T. H. Corry, M.A., and the surviving editor. The 

 lamentable and premature death of Mr. Corry by drown- 

 ing, together with his friend and companion Mr. Dickson, 

 in Lough Gill, on a botanizing excursion in 1883, will be 

 remembered by most botanists. This sad event consider- 

 ably retarded the appearance of the work, as Mr. Stewart's 

 duties as Curator of the Belfast Museum left him little 

 time for the task. 



A brief history of botanical discovery, and the biblio- 

 graphy of what has been published, precede equally short 

 paragraphs on the geography, geology, climate, &c, 

 of the country. Then follows the enumeration, which 

 includes 803 flowering plants and ferns, 293 mosses, and 

 73 liverworts. Babington's " Manual of British Botany," 

 which contains 1524 vascular plants in the entire British 

 flora, has been taken as the standard of the " Flora of the 

 North-East of Ireland," though deviations in nomenclature 

 have been made — in accordance with the rules of priority,, 

 Mr. Stewart explains. 



The volume is a small and handy one, not overladen 

 with localities, which is a distinct advantage over many 

 similar works ; but it has also certain defects, which, if 

 pointed out, may possibly be remedied in a later edition. 

 In the first place, there is no map of the country, a serious 

 curtailment of its possible usefulness. Another defect, 

 only the initial letter of the generic name is carried 

 forward from page to page, though there is invariably 

 ample space to repeat the name in full ; therefore it is 

 necessary to turn back to the beginning of the genus to> 

 ascertain what is intended. The same thing is noticeable 

 in the index. 



With regard to the purely literary part of the work r 

 more particularly that relating to the priority and author- 

 ship of names, it would obviously have been better had 

 the author adhered strictly to the la^t edition of Babington's 

 " Manual " or the last edition of the " London Catalogue," 

 for this part of the subject is just now in a transitional stage, 

 andwithout avery complete botanical libraryit isimpossible 

 to do more than add to the existing confusion. We have 

 no sympathy with those who adhere strictly to the " law 

 of priority," because it entails endless changes of familiar 

 names, and sacrifices convenience without any correspond- 

 ing advantage. The fall of one genus often carries several 

 others with it, and until the whole of the literature of 

 binominal botany has been thoroughly examined there is 

 no saying where the changes will stop. At the same time, 

 if it is to be done, it should be done thoroughly, once 

 for all. 



Having turned up at random about half-a-dozen names 

 concerning which there was some ambiguity, we found 

 that the author was wrong in each instance. Thus, " Nas- 

 turtium palustre (Willd.), D.C.," should be N. terrestre,. 

 B. Br. ; " Lepidium Smithii (Linn.), Hooker," = L. hetero- 

 phyllum, Benth. ; "Hypericum tetraptcrum, Fries," = 

 H. quadrat um, Stokes ; " Lotus pilosus, Beeke (L. major,. 

 Sm)," = L. uli^inosus, Schkuhr, and so on to the end. 

 Whether the older names here cited are the oldest of all' 

 for the plants in question under the accepted genera is 

 uncertain. Somebody some day may find names for some 

 of these plants a week or two older, and then comes 

 another change ! 



More interesting are some of the local names cited by 

 Stewart, such as Tormenting Root {Potentilla Torme?itilla), 

 Mashcorns {Potentilla Anserina), Rose-noble {Scrophu- 

 laria nodosa), and Well- ink {Veronica Beccabungd). 

 Britten and Holland have all these names, or nearly the 

 same. Thus, mascorns, and other variations, for the same 

 plant in Scotland 



W. B. H. 



