REVIEWS. 39 
Sanguisorba major flore spadiceo. Rai Syn. p. 205. 
Common in most of the pastures; in some of which it is the 
principal plant. The farmers were much divided in their opi- 
nions respecting its goodness. It produces a large but late crop ; 
grows frequently to the height of four or five feet; but its stalks 
are hard, and apparently unfit for fodder. Some have suspected 
this was the species recommended to have been cultivated some 
years since; but Dr. Watson, whose authority will not be dis- 
puted, assures me it was the Lesser Burnet, whose chief excellence 
consists in affording foliage early in the spring, a property the 
present plant cannot boast of. 
[Nos. 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 11, 14, 16, 18, 19, were noticed by the an- 
notator while botanizing about Settle, in September, 1852. | 
(To be continued.) 
Kebielos, 
The Ferns of Great Britain. Illustrated by Joun K. SowErsy, 
Proprietor of Sowerby’s English Botany. The Descriptions, 
Synonyms, etc., by Cuarues Jounson, Es@., Botanical Lec- 
turer at Guy’s Hospital. 
Dr. Lindley, several years ago, included upwards of 2000 
species of Ferns in his Filical Alliance, and Kunze estimated the 
species at 8000. We should, from the estimates of Humboldt 
and Brown, and from the collections of Wallich, infer that they 
amount to nearly double the higher of these two estimates. They 
constitute one thirty-fifth of the prominent plants of Britain, and 
one thirty-first of the pheenogamous vegetation of Scotland. Du- 
ring the last twenty years the literature of Ferns has made rapid ad- 
vances, quite as extensive as the knowledge of the plants them- 
selves. This however we will make the subject of another article, 
and will here limit ourselves to a brief notice of the contents of 
the handsome work now before us. Both the authors are well 
known as men of eminence in their profession. They need no 
commendatory notices from us, and we believe our readers would. 
rather have a summary of the contents of their work than any 
adulation of its authors. The pictorial part of the work contains 
coloured or partly coloured engravings of all the British species. 
The fronds are usually delineated of the natural size, with addi- 
