NATORE 53! 

MEAURSDAYS. Wiles; 1915. 

(1) The Potamogetons (Pond Weeds) of the 
British Isles. By A. Fryer and A. Bennett. 
Illustrated by R. Morgan. Pp. x+94+60 
plates. (London: L. Reeve and Co., Ltd., 
1915.) Price £5 5s. net. 
(2) Floral Rambles in Highways and Byways. 
By, Rev. . Prof. -G. Henslow. ° Pp. 204. 
(Eondonk: (S5P-C2k.) tonsa) eerice 6s. net: 
(3) A Pocket Synopsis of the Families of British 
Flowering Planis. By W.~B. Grove. Pp. 
vi+4g9. (Manchester: At the University Press; 
London: Longmans, Green and Co., 
Priceemss met; 
(t) (2 TUDENTS of British Botany and workers 
S in general on pond weeds will welcome 
the appearance, after many days, of the com- 
pletion of the monograph on British potamoge- 
tons which is associated with the name of the 
late Alfred Fryer. The monograph presents the 
results of an intimate study in their native 
habitats and extending over many years, of 
the species of one of the most critical of 
genera. In his home at Chatteris, in the fen 
country, Fryer was especially well situated 
for observing at first hand a large number of 
forms of this remarkably variable genus, and the 
retirement in which he lived, though a matter of 
regret to his botanical friends, gave the oppor- 
tunity for close and uninterrupted study. The 
critical notes which accompany his very full 
description of the species, varieties, and forms are 
evidence of his thorough and _ painstaking 
methods, and the great value of his work is 
enhanced by the large series of beautifully pre- 
pared specimens numbering many hundreds which 
he bequeathed to the British Museum, where, in 
the Department of Botany, they will form a 
permanent record available for future use. 
To the few botanists who were privileged to 
know Fryer it will be matter for regret that a 
brief account of his life was not included in the 
volume which records the results of his botanical 
work; the two were so intimately connected. At 
any rate, some explanation of the genesis and 
course of the work was due. No reference is 
made to the fact that three parts containing 
50 pages of text and 36 plates were published in 
1898 (two parts) and 1900, and that a fourth part, 
edited by Mr. A. H. Evans from Mr. Fryer’s 
MS. appeared, with 13 plates, in 1913. The 
work was completed by the issue in March, 1915, 
IQI5-) | 

of a concluding part by Mr. Arthur Bennett, with 
NO. 2385, VOL. 95] 
an introduction to the whole and a key to the 
species. 
It was fortunate that Mr. Bennett, a friend of 
and co-worker with Fryer, and a botanist whose 
knowledge of our pond-weeds is unequalled, was 
able to complete the work. The volume as it 
stands, though a connected whole, thus repre- 
sents three portions—an earlier portion, including 
seventeen of the total forty-two species and 
hybrids, which had been completed and published 
by Mr. Fryer before his death; a second portion, 
the difficult lucens group, which Mr. A. H. Evans 
has been able to edit from Fryer’s MS. and 
published notes; and-a third portion dealing with 
the grass-leaved group for which Mr. Bennett is 
solely responsible. 
The text is well arranged and remarkably clear, 
there is some want of uniformity in 
matters bibliographical. The work of the artist, 
Robert Morgan, is left to speak for itself. It is 
no detraction from the value of Fryer’s work 
to emphasise the importance of the coloured 
plates, the great majority of which were drawn 
by Morgan from living plants supplied by the 
author; and there is no doubt that Morgan’s 
untimely death in 1900 was a leading factor in 
the cessation of publication. The omission from 
the plates of the name of the species is to be 
regretted. 
Apart from its value as a purely systematic 
work, the volume is of special interest as indicat- 
ing methods of study and as throwing light on 
questions of variation and species-status in 
aquatic plants. 
(2) It is difficult to realise when looking through 
Prof. George Henslow’s latest volume that the 
author was an active botanist before most modern 
workers in the science were born. There is a 
freshness and juvenility about the series of 
rambles which form the subject of his eminently 
readable chapters, and we congratulate Prof. 
Henslow on the mental vigour which he retains 
with his fourscore years. In a series of fourteen 
chapters with titles such as “Along a Road’s 
Sides,’ “By Hedges and Ditches,” “Through 
Marsh-land,” ‘In the Water,” and others similar, 
he has brought together an amount of information 
about our commoner plants in a manner intelligi- 
ble to any reader who has a slight knowledge of 
botany. Some of the more striking features of 
the plants characteristic of the various habitats 
are described, and interesting notes on their 
natural history, such as pollination, methods of 
climbing, etc., and on their distribution and folk- 
lore, are given. As was to be expected, the author 
seizes every opportunity to emphasise his view of 
xX 
though 
