^36 Northern News. 



A Tourist's Flora of the West of Ireland, by R. Lloyd Praeger. Dublin : 

 Hodges, Figgis & Co. pp. XII. and 243. With 5 coloured maps, 27 plates 

 and 17 figures in the text. 3/6 net. 1909. 



The author tells us that this book is intended to serve as a ' first aid ' 

 to the tourist who desires information, in a condensed form, respecting 

 the peculiar flora which to the botanical student renders the West of Ire- 

 land one of the most interesting regions in Europe. We know of no one 

 better qualified than Mr. Praeger for the task, and a glance at the three 

 sections into which the book is divided shows how admirably adapted it 

 is to the end in view. The introductory chapters deal with the physical 

 features, vegetational sub-divisions, plant-formations and natural groups, 

 character of the flora, and progress of botanical investigation. Though 

 brief, the many fascinating points in plant distribution are well brought out. 

 The topographical section describes the more interesting features in the 

 flora of over one hundred areas, and are accompanied by many references 

 to local floras, and more detailed works where more complete accounts may 

 be found. This is followed by the systematic section, giving the distribu- 

 tion of each species, the nomenclature followed being that of the ' Cybele 

 Hibernica ' and ' Irish Topographical Botany.' The three sections are 

 separately indexed, the indices being easily found by means of coloured 

 title pages preceding sections 2 and 3. The book is beautifully illustrated 

 by the well-known photographs of Mr. R. Welsh, also by five coloured maps, 

 and many small but clear maps in black and white, showing the distribution 

 of the more interesting species. All intelligent tourists, as well as botanists, 

 will welcome this excellent work, and we should like to see the floras of 

 England, Wales and Scotland treated in a similar way. 



Trees : A Hand-book of Forest-botany for the Woodlands and the 

 Laboratory, by the late H. Marshall Ward, Sc.D., F.R.S. Vol. \'., Form and 

 Habit, pp. X. and 308, with 209 illustrations. Cambridge University 

 Press, 1909. 4/6 net. 



This volume, as in its predecessor, is edited by Dr. Percy Groom, 

 and is a very welcome addition to the series. The first part of the book, 

 including nine chapters, deals with the habit of trees, their stems and 

 branches and branching, also the form, bark and non-typical shoots. 

 The chapter dealing with the development of form will be found particu- 

 larly interesting to students, and the excellent diagrams help materially 

 to elucidate the text. The chapters on non-typical shoots and climbing 

 plants are equally useful, though the author might possibly have revised 

 a detail here and there had he been spared to see it through the press. 

 The special part deals with the classification of trees according to their 

 shapes, and also with shrubs and bushes. The volume concludes with a 

 classification of trees and shrubs according to their seedlings, which, though 

 not so complete as the author intended to make it, yet will be found most 

 useful, while the drawings of the seedlings are all that could be desired. 



NORTHERN NEWS. 



Last month we recorded that Scotter Common, Lines., has been fired. 

 Since then we regret to find that another fine piece of Lincolnshire Common, 

 Crowle Moor, has been destroyed in the same way. 



We have received from Dr. W. J. Fordham, of Bubwith, Selb}-, a photo- 

 graph of an Ash branch (Fraxinns excelsior), showing an interesting 

 example of fasciation. As he points out, fasciation has been of \-ery com- 

 mon occurrence this year. Amongst others noted are flowering stems of 

 Hypocha-ris radicata, Daisy, Dandelion and other Composites, Scabiosa 

 columbaria, Plantago lanceolata and Ranunculus repens. 



Mr. H. H. Corbett has been appointed Curator of the recently formed 

 -Municipal Museum at Doncaster, at a salary of £50 per annum. 



Naturalist, 



