THE FAUNA AND FLORA OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 2^9 



intended "merely as a collector's aid": are collectors in the habit 

 of buying large, heavy and costly books for the sake of a list of 

 twelve pages ? We imagine they will prefer a London Catalogue 

 marked for the county, which will prove in every respect a more 

 profitable outlay. 



But this list, even if correct so far as it goes, is incomplete, 

 and the division of the county into two subprovinces in accordance 

 with what Mr. Strugnell calls "Top. Die.' 1 is not recognised. Like 

 all the rest of the Flora, it swarms with astonishing misprints, e.tj. 

 "Galium, " "Anterrhinuin," "granmrinea," "Diyraphis," " Scle- 

 rochlsa," "flavium," "Juncas," "inonatroba" (p. xix.) : and 

 evidences of incredible ignorance abound ; e. g. Draba rem a and 

 Kmphila vulgaris, Lotus pilosus and L. major, Linaria "Minor" 

 and L. viscida, Phegopteris Bobertiana and Polijpodium calcaremn, 

 stand as separate species, and many other examples might be cited, 

 showing that Mr. Strugnell has not the faintest conception of what 

 is meant by synonymy. Pteris serrulata is added to the British 

 Flora, and three forms of Scolopendrium are ranked as species : 

 there is also a new Orchis, " latijiora, Lam.,' 7 for which a Mr. W. A. 

 Shoolbred vouches, but which is perhaps intended for 0. latifolia, 

 which stands next to it. And this list, phenomenally bad as it is, 

 is the most useful part of the book, so far as phanerogams are 

 concerned ! 



Of the various other "sections" devoted to the Flora, that on 

 " Celebrated Trees," with illustrations, is interesting. Sect. III., 

 "Notes on Celebrated Plants," is written in a gossiping style, and 

 suggests a country newspaper as its origin — perhaps the "local 

 journal" the editor of which was "happened on" by the writer of 

 the section, "lens in hand, busily absorbed in gazing on a specimen 

 sent him by a botanical friend : leaders, correspondence, advertise- 

 ments lay on his table unheeded, as the parnassia revealed its 

 beautiful scales and peerless flower." "It is not given to every 

 mortal," he adds, "to see this peerless grass (!) in bloom." There 

 is a wonderful account of Woad, of which "the ancient Greek 

 writers speak under the name of isatis, and Latin writers call 

 Lsatistinctoria" (sic): and among the other "celebrated plants" 

 are Meadowsweet, Dyer's Weed, Frittillaria (always spelt thus), and 

 "the Common Carraway {Carum Cassi)." Then come "The 

 Gloucestershire Orckidacese," among which Cephalanthera rubra— 

 the Gloucestershire orchid— finds no place : the Rev. W. F. White 

 treats of the Ferns, or "felices," as he calls them, introduced by a 

 wonderful passage from "the accomplished author of The Fern 

 Paradise" Then we have "some Gloucestershire aquatic plants," 

 among which are Lepid'unn rwlerale, Spircea Filipendula, Kpilobiwn 

 awiuHtifoliuw, and such oddities as " JEnanthe," "LgmmmmHmf* 

 and the order "Grammea"; followed by "The Edible Fungi of 

 Stonehouse," attributed to Prof. Buckman, bat written, we believe, 

 by his son, Mr. S. 8. Buckman. Messrs. G. Holmes and Shoolbred 

 write on Gloucestershire Mosses, and the Rev. H. P. Reader's 

 paper on the Hepaticeae, published in this Journal for 1885 (p. 881), 

 is reprinted without acknowledgment. This paper forms the first 



