278 NOTICES OF BOOKS AND MEMOIRS. 



Notices of Boofts antt fifrtmoiv*. 



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La Phytograplde, on Vart de decrire les vegctaux considered sous dif events 



point* de rue. Par Alph. de Candolle. Paris : Masson, 1880. 

 8vo, pp. xxiv., 484. 



lUforme de la Nomenclature Botanique. Par le Dr. Saint-Lager. 



Lyon : Eistor, 1880. 8vo, pp. 155. 



Proserpina. Studies of wayside Flowers, while the air was yet pure 



among the Alps, and in the Scotland and England which my 

 father knew. By John Euskin. Orpington. Vol. i. [1874-] 

 1879. 8vo, pp. 287. 



We have here grouped under one heading three works of 

 very different aim and character, whose claim to be considered 

 together is that each is concerned with the names given to plants 

 by botanical writers. 



M. De Candolle's book is very pleasant reading. In going with 



the author through his various subjects, we are conscious of being 



conducted by a guide whose long experience, exceptional trainin_ 



and philosophical method of looking at things, signally qualify 



him to point out the best way for future botanists to take when 



working at some branch of descriptive Botany. The author does 



not attempt to lay down any rules for investigating vital phenomena, 



the growth of particular organs, and general physiological problems ; 



his experience having been chiefly gathered in other channels, he 



was perfectly right to confine his remarks to ground so familiar 



to him, and about which his observations would tell with greatest 

 effect. 



After some general preliminary remarks, the relative amount of 

 publicity to be attained by publication in journals, transactions, or 

 separate treatises is discussed; next, the use of Latin for descrip- 

 tions is urged, not at all too strongly; then we find hints as to 

 methods of working and recording, passing on to the treatment of 

 natural groups of plants, and how they should be described. 

 Nearly thirty monographs are cited by name, and separately 

 criticised or praised, and local floras afterwards receive their share 

 of praise and blame. Next in order we find rules submitted to 

 regulate our choice of terms in drawing up the descriptions them- 

 selves, which rules we would commend to the thoughtful considera- 

 tion of many botanists of the present day who appear more careful 

 to coin their own special names than to simplify nomenclature and 

 reduce it to its lowest terms. 



The terms glaucus and pruinosus, lanceolatas in its sundry different 

 shades of signification, and the much debated sinistrosum vel 

 de.rtrosum volubili$, are next brought into the arena. The conclusions 

 arrived at are consistent with Limiams's definition, " Sinistrosum 

 hoc est, quod respicit sinistrum, si ponas te ipsum in centro 



lUin 



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Phil, lot., p. 103 (1751). Mathematicians may object to some of 



