REVIEWS. 411 
for September, 1855, we refer those who are interested in the 
subject. Mr. Baker’s division of the genus does not exactly 
coincide with that adopted by the monographer, but they are 
substantially the same. Some of the general results of Mr. 
Backhouse’s labours we condense, and we offer the following 
abstract only as a sample, hoping that all who are interested in 
botany will procure the work and judge for themselves. 
Mr. Backhouse gives us, as the result of above twelve years’ 
study of the British Mieracia, ‘thirty- three species, collected 
chiefly in the districts of Teesdale, Clova, and Braemar, and all 
of them cultivated by himself as much as possible under the same 
conditions. This is a large increase, and some may hesitate be- 
fore adopting Mr. Backhouse’s views. To these it may be said, 
read and judge for yourselves. Our author has not adopted the 
procrustean mode of extending or curtailing the characters of 
species, in order to adapt them to fit into some other systematic 
descriptions, Fries’s for example. He acknowledges, as any bo- 
tanist may, his obligations to the learned author of the ‘ Sym- 
bolz ad Historiam Hieraciorum,’ but emphatically asserts that 
all his attempts to refer the plants he collected to species already 
described as British, were ineffectual. Our author’s opinions on 
this difficult genus of plants will be received with some deference 
when it is considered that he has studied them in their native 
localities; has observed them growing under the very variable 
conditions of diversity of soil, exposure, horizontal and vertical 
range; and, in addition to all this, he has cultivated them in his 
own garden, and noted their growth and development under arti- 
ficial and similar conditions. 
The horizontal distribution of the Hieracia extends from the 
south of England to the north of Seotland, though they are 
more abundant in the west than in the east, owing probably 
both to elevation and atmosphere. Their vertical range is very 
great, viz. from the coast-line or seaboard to nearly the summits 
of our highest mountains; or they have a range of 4000 feet. 
Nine of the most common and widely distributed of the species 
at, 
grow at an elevation varying from the coast-line to above.5000 | ~~. =)" 
feetin altitude. Four of these, viz. H. Pilosella, H. murorum, 
H. vulgatum, and H. cesium, extend into the lower alpine region, 
which is from 1500 to 2500 feet of elevation. These, the most 
common species, have the greatest range, both horizontal and 
