220 NOUVELLE FLORE DES MOUSSES. 



inducing reflection and experiment in the case of the large class of 

 ''modern" botanists who speak in lordly contempt of dried plants. 

 Some of the young gentlemen (and ladies) in question might greatly 

 distinguish themselves by making the discovery that dried plants 

 actually have their uses, even though of an ignoble sort, q j| 



Xouvelle Flore des Mousses et dcs Hepatiques pour la determination 



facile des especes. Par Mons. I. Douin, Professor au Lycee de 

 Chartres. Pp. 186, 1288 figs. Paris: Paul Dupont. 1892. 

 Price//-. 5-50. Cloth. 



The attention of those who are beginning to study Mosses and 

 Hepatics is invited to this book. Hitherto probably nine out of 

 every ten would-be bryologists have found themselves so over- 

 whelmed with difficulties at the very threshold of the subject that 

 they have turned back in despair. All further progress has been 

 effectually barred by the scarcity and high price of good books, the 

 want of illustrations, and of a good and suitable key. The few who 

 have mauaged to penetrate further into the obscure and unknown 

 region have gained their knowledge from herbarium specimens or 

 from expert bryologists with whom they have had the good fortune 

 to be acquainted. Now, however, the outlook is brighter ; the bar 

 is removed. Two pioneers have gone ahead, and opened up the 

 way so that all w T ho will may follow. Let us then pluck up courage, 

 and despair no more ! 



In the early part of 1891 was published in this Journal the Be v. 

 H. G. Jameson's "Key to the Genera and Species of British 

 Mosses/' which is now in the market as a separate publication of 

 34 pp. and 1 plate. It is a most excellent and practical clue to all 



the British Mosses, and may be regarded as an indispensable 

 supplement to Hobkirk's Si/nojms. One of its most praiseworthy 

 features is that, being based upon characters other than the fruit, 

 it enables one to identify even barren plants. 



And now comes M. Douin's Xouvelle Flore des Mousses, one of a 

 series of cheap and profusely illustrated Floras which is in course of 

 publication in Paris. This is one of those things which are done 

 better in France. The author's notion is to suppress technical 

 terms as far as is possible, to arrange the characters of the plants in 

 tables, and to illustrate each character by a figure inserted in the text, 

 so that the eye can appreciate their differences at the first glance. 

 Thus nearly 1300 figures are employed, and the result is about as 

 clear and practical a key as could be devised. The mere fact that 

 the book is in French need deter no one from using it. So simple 

 are the expressions, and so amply are they explained in the glossary, 

 that they will not frighten the most diffident. The author opens 

 with a short chapter on the life-history of the Muscinem, and 

 proceeds to describe in full seven of the commonest types, of which 

 ftve are Mosses —Pohjtrichnm formosum Hedw., Barbula niuralis 



Medw. 9 Uypnum triquetriun L., Mnium undulatum Neck., Sphagnum 

 njmbijoium Ehr.,— and two are Hepatics— Junqermannia albicans 



ii., / ellia epiphythi Corda. To each of these he then applies the 



