430 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
.L.8., with 
duction by F. E. Hutme, F.L.S. Illustrated by the Author. 
8vo, pp. xvi, 265. Price 1s. 6d.; cloth, 2s. Cassell & Co. 
HE question is constantly asked by beginners, ‘‘ What is the 
best elementary botany book?” This usually means, ‘“‘ By the aid 
of what book can I most easily ascertain the names of wild flowers ? °” 
which is nt always the same thing. There are excellent handbooks 
which presuppose some knowledge of botany, and perhaps those 
which give the least trouble are illustrate d ones, as it is & parently 
so much easier to run down a plant by jeletatiin to illustrations 
than to master the technical expressions which are necessary before 
any classified list can be followed; but in illustrations colour is so 
often very badly eee and unless they are otherwise very 
well executed and so render the price of the work prohibitive, the 
dange r of error is ont than when some sort of written deserip- 
tion is followed. 
e book above rarer we have a cheap and excellent work 
drawn up on an entirely new plan, which we think is likely to prove 
very useful. The wnesifionttini is based upon five cardinal points— 
Ist, the season of flowering ; 2nd, the colour ; 8rd, size of flower; 4th, 
its prominent characteristics ; 5th, its habitat. It is no doubt easy to 
find defects in all systematic arrangements, but less easy to suggest 
improvements. To our mind the primary defect in the author’s 
system is that plants are arranged under the months in which they 
begin to flower. Now many common species flower all through the 
cetacean, indeed, almost the whole year round—an a the 
ice who began his studies in the summer holidays might have 
to pears back through several preceding months ee locating his 
find. e author the i 
p. 148, where the July flowers with ‘‘rose or pink ’’ flowers appear, 
and find three species with ‘‘ medium’’-sized flowers, none of which 
will ft our specimen. Turning back to June, — colour Ree’ 
‘‘rosy-pink” contains seven species with ‘‘ medium” flowers, and 
the tyro might be in danger of considering the Red ( German Catel 
Fly (Lychnis eset ia) to be the name he sought, though ne charac- 
ters given—‘ root-leaves very narrow lance olate; tlowers almost 
sessile ; rocks 6 to 10 inches; abel raga save Aad es 
ing to May, only two species appear with “ red or pink, medium” 
flowers, which would doubtless “9 once rejected by heir characters. 
In April only two appear, of which one, viz. Herb Robert, is dis- 
car om its having fern-like leaves, the other being Rose Campion. 
The mio grouping may perhaps have been overdone, for we 
all know how folk differ in their names for the same colours. 
Moreover, the colour of flowers varies greatly, and is often difficult 
