BRITISH FLOWERING PLANTS 321 
press, and has issued the volume under the somewhat misleading 
title of British Flowering Plants. Mr. Kirby has a well-earned 
pentehici as an entomologist, and this gives a arte to this little 
n 
object of the book. Thus the order Ulmacee occupies 27 lines, 17 
of which are devoted to two butterflies which feed on elm; the de- 
scription of the oak, ‘‘of which there are several varieties,’ ‘occupies 
18 lines: that of the insects associated with it77! The result is as 
if a botanist were to write, to foreign plates, a work on British insects, 
devoting himself in great cine to an account of the plants on 
which they feed. 
The compilation of such a volume is easy enough, and it is a 
to say that, so far as we have seen, this contains few errors; but th 
descriptions do not give us the impression that the author knows che 
plants he writes about. For eee he not only figures and describes 
Ranunculus awricomus und e * Buttercu up,” but he omits 
tie atest attention of the young eT Eaes The figure does not show this, 
but every observer knows it. ‘‘ Meadow Clover” is not T’rifolium 
medium, which does not grow in meadows, but 7’. pratense ; Lotus is 
certainly not the equivalent of ‘“ different species of Trefoil,”’ nor 
re these ‘‘sometimes known in Ireland as shamrock”’ (p. 56). 
The plant figured and described as Oxalis corniculata is that which 
we are accustomed to call O. stricta—Prof. Robinson promises us a 
note big this plant which will interest our readers ; and the “ Spring 
: Crocus vernus” is a yellow-flowered tom probably C. 
aureus. soe the compilation as a a hole: is accura 
The necessity of making the text fit the plates has resulted in 
the a euon: as Mr. Kirby tells us in his preface, of “‘ a few plants 
not found in the British Islands; but, with a single exception 
rd 
of Globularia vulgaris occupies 26 lines ; British plants are treated 
much more bri oe — Rubus Chamamorus, which happens to be open 
before us, takes 7. Dianthus carthusianorum, Rhamnus alpina, 
Cytisus pepite, Arnica montana, Pedicularis Sceptrum-Carolinum, 
ritish, 
naturalized—e. g., Epimedium alpinum, Sorbus pigsty ‘Hpileh m 
Dodonai, and Trapa natans, though this last, as Mr. Kirby points 
out, “was formerly a British plant, haying been found “ Mr. 
Clement Ripe in the pence deposits at Pakefield, Suffolk.’ 
her a brief elementary introduction, illustrated by nume- 
rous att ae ee very rough figures—the “119 illustrations in the 
text ’’—and a full index. The book is prettily got up and well 
JOURNAL OF ya 44, (Sepremper, 1906.] 24 
