114 Bibliographical Notices. 



"Field" — i.e. an open sheep-walk, its meaning in some of the 

 eastern counties. If so, the plant might possibly be native though 

 extremely doubtful. It is one of those species that appear some 

 years in profusion and in the next can hardly be found ; at least 

 such is the experience of the writer in E. and W. i^orfolk on the 

 " Breck " lands and sea-cliffs. Here and there the British botanist 

 will find " forms " the names of which he is not familiar with, as 

 nnder Silene Cuculmlus, p. 61, at p. 112 &c. 



The llubiseemto have been better worked out than the Roses; surely 

 there are more forms of canina in Herts than those given. Is not 

 the reference under Hieracitim vulgatum v. maculatam (p. 254) a slip ? 

 Smith's plant was hardly the same as this. On page 269 Pi/rolci 

 rotuadlfoUa is accepted as a Herts species : surely this (at least) 

 should have been queried ; there is no intimation that Mr. Pryor 

 had seen a specimen, and it is a rare southern plant, although it 

 does occur in Kent ! The query after '' Cambs " under EriopJiorum 

 latifoliun may be expunged ; there are specimens in Smith's herbarium 

 at the Linnean Society " from Parson Holme." 



It seems somewhat remarkable that Herts should possess Carex 

 lepidocarpa, Tausch., and no other form o{ C. flava, L. ; yet elsewhere 

 in Britain lejndocarpa is a rare form. On page 440 Mr. Pryor substi- 

 tutes Carex gracilis, Curtis, for 0. acuta, L. (1753), yet writes G. vul- 

 garis, F., for G. Goodenovii, Gay. 



The species of the county are those mostly representing the flora 

 of the Thames basin, with some rarities, and a few absences that 

 are rather remarkable. 



Of the first may be named Ly thrum Hifssopifolia, Lihanotis montana, 

 Bulhocastanum Linnaia, Melampyrum cristatum. Orchis militaris, 

 Aceras Herminium, Carex paradoxa, Phleam phalaroides, &c. Of 

 the latter may be mentioned Corydcdis clavicidata and Viola 

 jpalustris. 



Thesium hum if us um is very rare in the county on the chalk. There 

 seems something about this species in its distribution in our country 

 that is peculiar ; why is it not a Kent plant ? Yet within a few miles 

 of the Kentish border in SuiTcy it abounds in exactly the same 

 ground as occurs in Kent, without apparently any special physical 

 conditions. Alchemilla vulgaris is a species tbat is tolerably common 

 in Herts ; yet in Surrey, Middlesex, and Kent it is very rare ; why ? 

 With about the same natural, physical, and geological conditions 

 there is yet something needed to explain these anomalies of distribu- 

 tion . 



On closing this Flora, one of the latest additions to our counties, 

 the writer of this owns to a disappointment felt, which he thinks 

 he is justified in saying he is not alone in. One cannot but deeply 

 regret the death of its author, and feel that the work of two men 

 (good and true), Webb and Coleman, in their ' Flora Hertfordiensis ' 

 (far in advance of its times as it was), would have been carried to a 

 higher standard had he lived to give it to the world. 



Akthfk Bennett. 



