Bibliographical Notices. 319 



size of the leaf, &c. ; but these particulars are such as experience 

 teaches us are liable to vary in the seedlings raised from one 

 individual. 



" "When a large number of individuals of a species differs from the 

 others in any striking particular, they constitute a variety. If the 

 variety generally comes true from seed it is often called a race. A 

 variety can only be propagated with certainty by grafts, cuttings, 

 bulbs, buds. ... A race may with care be propagated by seed, 

 though the seedlings will always be liable to lose those particulars 

 which distinguished it from the rest of the species. 



"A REAL SPECIES will alivai/s come true from seed" (p. 26 of 

 Introduction). We hope the test of careful cultivation is rigorously 

 carried out at Kew or elsewhere, under the accurate and observant 

 eye of our author ; otherwise, he is only setting problems without 

 attempting to solve them himself, or even ascertaining if they admit 

 of solution. 



One of the most distinctive features of the 'Handbook' is the 

 prominence given to English names. As in the standard series of 

 zoological works published by Van Voorst, the English specific names 

 take precedence of the Latin : here our author abjures his own prin- 

 ciple of " ancient precedent." 



Perhaps in those Utopian days when botany shall be taught in 

 every village school, ^Ir. Bentham's English names may obtain 

 general currency. At present they seem to add one more difficulty 

 to a synonymy already encumbered. An experiment which has 

 failed among the French (a nation never the last to adopt a de- 

 sirable novelty) is hardly likely to succeed upon the more conser- 

 vative side of the Channel. 



Great pains have been bestowed upon an idea which, like the 

 decimal system of coinage, must find a most serious obstacle to its 

 introduction in long-continued use, even if the advantages oflFered by 

 the adoption of English names were not far outweighed by other 

 considerations, such as the reason above given. 



Another novelty to British botanists is the outline of its foreign 

 range, which is given after each species, as well as a general sum- 

 mary of its distribution in Britain ; the latter derived from Mr. 

 Watson's ' Cybele liritannica.' But views that condense many 

 plants under one name lead naturally to inexact views of geogra- 

 phical distribution, and we should not be surprized to find that the 

 range of many species is made to appear wider than it really is. 



The introduced plants, " aliens," &c., receive little favour at the 

 hands of Mr. Bcntham ; and here we believe he has acted very 

 judiciously. The thoroughly naturalized plants, however, as well as 

 the colonists, stand, in the text, upon cfiual terms with the indigenous 

 species : we regret that our author did not conform to the practice, 

 so usually adopted, of distinguishing these interlopers by some 

 "brand" indicative of their foreign origin, assumed or known. 



It is well observed of the " colonists," that " in some instances it 

 would appear that the whole of the land they originally inhabited is 

 now in a state of cultivation ; so that if omitted from one Flora they 



