420 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 822 



work of Dr. Boswell Syme, who made it 

 worthily representative of its subject; but 

 the plates, with few exceptions, are reissues 

 of those of the first edition, less perfect as 

 impressions and far less carefully colored; 

 and this applies with still greater force to 

 a reissue of the third edition a few years 

 ago. This edition, moreover, included only 

 the vascular plants and Characeaj. As this 

 is the only large and fuUy illustrated Brit- 

 ish flora that has been attempted, it is 

 almost needless to add that in this respect 

 provision for the study of the flora of our 

 islands is far behind that of certain other 

 countries, and very notably behind that 

 made in the "Flora danica." 



Turning next to the provision of less 

 costly aids to the study of British plants, 

 we have manuals of most of the larger 

 groups. The vascular plants are treated of 

 in numerous works, including a consider- 

 able number of illustrated books in recent 

 years, inexpensive but insufficient for any 

 but the most elementary students. Fitch's 

 outline illustrations to Bentham's "Hand- 

 book to the British Flora," supplemented 

 by W. G. Smith, were issued in a separate 

 volume in 1887, which is still the best for 

 use in the inexpensive works of this kind. 

 Babington's "Manual," on its first appear- 

 ance in 1843, was gladly welcomed as em- 

 bodying the result of careful and continued 

 researches by its author into the relations of 

 British plants to their nearest relatives on 

 the continent of Europe; and each succes- 

 sive issue up to the eighth in 1881 received 

 the careful revision of the author, and con- 

 tained additions and modifications. In 

 1904 a ninth edition was edited, after the 

 author's death, by H. and J. Groves; but, 

 though the editors included notes left by 

 Professor Babington prepared for a new 

 edition, they were "unable to make altera- 

 tions in the treatment of some of the crit- 

 ical genera which might perhaps have been 



desirable." The "Student's Flora of the 

 British Islands," by Sir J. D. Hooker, is- 

 sued in 1870, took the place of the well- 

 known "British Flora" (1830, and in sub- 

 sequent editions until the eighth in 1860, 

 the last three being issued in collaboration 

 by Sir W. J. Hooker and Professor Walker 

 Arnott). The third edition of the "Stu- 

 dent's Flora" appeared m 1884, and there 

 has been none since. Mr. P. N. Williams's 

 "Prodromus Flora Britannicse, " begun in 

 1901, of which less than one half has yet 

 appeared, though a work of much value 

 and authority, is scarcely calciflated for 

 the assistance of the ordinary student ; and 

 Mr. Druce's new edition of Hay ward's 

 "Botanist's Pocket Book" "is intended 

 merely to enable the botanist in the field 

 to name his specimens approximately, and 

 to refresh the memory of the more ad- 

 vanced worker. ' ' In all the books that are 

 intended for the use of British botanists, 

 apart from one or two recently issued local 

 floras, the classification is still that in use 

 in the middle of last century, even to the 

 extent in the most of them of retaining 

 Conifers as a division of Dicotyledones. 

 Apart from this, the critical study of Brit- 

 ish plants has led to the detection of nu- 

 merous previously unobserved and un- 

 named forms, which find no place in the 

 "Student's Flora," and are only in part 

 noticed in the recent edition of the 

 "Manual." 



The "Lists" of vascular plants of the 

 British flora that have recently been issued 

 by Messrs. Rendle and Britten, by Mr. 

 Druce, and as the tenth edition of the 

 "London Catalogue of British Plants" are 

 all important documents for the study of 

 the British flora; but they illustrate very 

 forcibly certain of the difficulties that beset 

 the path of the student eager to gain a 

 knowledge of the plants of his native land. 

 In these lists he finds it scarcely possible to 



