288 
PAINT elf, 
REVIEWS. 
Art. I. Fiera Devoniénsis : or a Descriptive Catalogue of Plants 
growing wild in the County of Devon, arranged both according 
to the Linnean and Natural Systems, with an Account of their 
Geographical Distribution, &ec. By:the Rev. J. P. Jones’ and 
J. F. Kingston. London. 8vo. 16s. 
Locan Floras are exceedingly useful both to the novice in science and 
the professed botanist. They confine the observation of the inexperienced 
within a limited district, and lessen the number of his particulars ; they lead 
him to an acquaintance with certain species, by directing him to their locali- 
ties in his neighbourhood, while the authors generally become the referees 
to clear up such obscure points as require elucidation, To the practised 
botanist they are still more important: they furnish him with materials for 
determining the conditions required for particular plants, and supply him 
also, in some measure, with the negative as well as the positive list of the 
district. 
The authors of the present work, instead of making botany a mere study 
of hard names, have very properly appended some general observations on 
vegetable distribution. We are sorry they are so meagre; and that, with 
the views they profess to entertain, so large a portion of the volume should 
be filled with technical matter ; as, in the present day, a local Flora ought 
not to be confined to the hackneyed description of species which is to be 
found in every general work, but should be distinguished by such research 
as carries the subject forward; and especially those particulars should be 
noticed which are presented to advantage in a limited district. 
The county of Devon is very favourable for such an undertaking: it 
offers to the botanist a great variety of soil; and some extensive and well 
marked strata. It comprehends a granite district, including Dartmoor, 
which will yield him a rich harvest of cryptogamic plants ; a slate district of 
various degrees of fertility; transition limestone, less luxuriant ; red sand- 
stone, uniformly fertile ; besides a long tract of coast, both on the north and 
south, where some of the greatest rarities of the kingdom are to be found. 
The authors observe, “ With all this variety in the rock strata, we know 
of no peculiar vegetable features by which to distinguish one formation from 
another: the Cisteae, Conyza squarrosa, and one or two other plants, seem 
to affect the limestone; the Clématis, also, appears to grow more luxuriantly 
among the crevices of that rock than elsewhere ; whilst the Iris foetidissima 
and the elm prevail most in the red sandstone, Still, neither these, nor any 
other species, so far as we are aware, are exclusively confined to any parti- 
cular formation.” We entertain, ourselves, a hope that accurate observ- 
ation will detect many vegetable attachments, few of which, probably, will 
be found exclusive; but the like conditions being given of moisture, tem- 
perature, sunshine, shade, and other elements, then we may expect to find 
plants making an election of soil or stratum, so as to obtain them in the 
degree suited to their nature. 
We regret that the authors should have been compelled to leave to the 
future a closer examination of the northern portion of the county, as they 
will find it well worth a minute investigation. Their suspicions that the 
