September 30, lOlO] 



SCIENCE 



423 



the manuals in ordinary use; but, when 

 trustworthy information has been gained 

 within the British Islands, under the con- 

 ditions prevailing hei-e, these topics should 

 certainly not be passed over in silence. 

 Students of the British flora have as yet 

 no such works of reference as Raunkjaer's 

 book on the Monocotyledons of Denmark 

 or the admirable " Lebensgeschichte der 

 Bliitenpflanzen Mitteleuropas, " at present 

 being issued by Drs. Kirchner, Loew and 

 Schroter. 



In a complete survey of the British bot- 

 any there must be included the successive 

 floras of the earlier geological formations, 

 though they can not as yet be brought 

 into correlation with the recent or existing 

 floras. In the brilliant progress made re- 

 centlj^ in this fleld of study our country 

 and the British Association are worthily 

 represented. 



The present provision for the study of 

 the British flora and the means that should 

 be made use of for its extension appear 

 to be these: 



Much excellent work has already been 

 accomplished and put on record towards 

 the investigation of the flora, but much of 

 that store of information is in danger of 

 being overlooked and forgotten or lost, 

 owing to the absence of means to direct 

 attention to where it may be found. A 

 careful revision of what has been done 

 and a systematic subject-index to its 

 stores are urgently required. 



The systematic works treating of the 

 flora are in great part not fully repre- 

 sentative of the knowledge already pos- 

 sessed, and require to be brought up to 

 date or to be replaced by others. 



Great difficulty is caused by the ab- 

 sence of an authoritative synonjinic list 

 that would show as far as possible the 

 equivalence of the names employed in the 

 various manuals and lists. There is much 



reason to wish that uniformity in the use 

 of names of species and varieties should 

 be arrived at, and a representative com- 

 mittee might assist to that end ; but, in the 

 meantime, a good synonymic list would be 

 a most helpful step towards relieving a 

 very pressing obstacle to progress. 



There is need for a careful analysis of 

 the flora with a view to determining those 

 species that owe their presence here to 

 man's aid, intentional or unconscious; and 

 the inquiry should be directed to ascertain 

 the periods and methods of introduction, 

 any tendencies to become modified in their 

 new homes, their subsequent relations 

 with man, and their influence on the na- 

 tive flora, whether direct or by modifying 

 habitats, as shown by Lupinus nootkaten- 

 sis in the valleys of rivers in Scotland. 



Those species that there is reason to re- 

 gard as not having been introduced by 

 man should be investigated as regards 

 their probable origins and the periods 

 and methods of immigration, evidence 

 from fossil deposits of the period during 

 which they have existed in this country, 

 their constancy or liability to show change 

 during this period, their resemblance to 

 or differences from the types in the coun- 

 tries from which they are believed to have 

 been derived, or the likelihood of their 

 having originated by mutation or by slow 

 change within the British Islands, and 

 their relation to man's influence on them 

 (usually harmful, but occasionally help- 

 ful) as affecting their distribution and 

 permanence. 



The topographical distribution, though 

 so much has been done in this field during 

 the past sixty or seventy years, still re- 

 quires careful investigation, to determine 

 not merely that species have been observed 

 in certain districts, but their relative fre- 

 quency, their relations to man (natives of 

 one part of our country are often aliens in 



