250 



ENGLISH BOTANY. 



part of the section entitled " Hepaticae and Rare Bristol Flora "— 

 the latter part consists of 32 names from Svvete's Flora Bristol iensi*, 

 including such genera as "Hdlibonu," " Senebria," and "Lepedium." 

 If there were any indication that the compiler of this work — we 

 are speaking only of the botany— were in the least degree conscious 

 of his incapacities, we should not speak thus severely of the book. 

 But in the introduction he implies that he has collected and 

 arranged the scattered notices hitherto published, collated the lists 

 of local botanists, and examined local herbaria. There is no 



evidence that this has been done 



>/ 



Bristol Coal/with, and his contributions to this Journal, to cite but 



two instances out of very many, have been entirely ignored, 



and it is abundantly plain that Mr. Strugnell would be incapable of 

 doing it. We look to Messrs. Boulger and Harker to produce at an 

 early date a Flora of Gloucestershire which shall be worthy of the 

 name, and in which some adequate and accurate account will be 

 given of the plants of this interesting county. 



EnglUh Botany. Supplement to the Third Edition, compiled and 



illustrated by N. E. Bbown. Parts 1 & 2. London : Bell & 

 Sons. 1891-2 [1892] . 5s. each. 



Messrs. Bell & Sons have intrusted the Supplement to Dr. 

 Boswell's great work on British Botany to Mr. N. E. Brown, of the 

 Kew Herbarium. Mr. Brown does not profess to have a practical 

 acquaintance with critical British plants, and the work is for the 

 most part a bringing together of what has been written on the 

 subject since the publication of English Botany, Ed. hi. Had it 

 been confined to this, the result would have been less unsatisfactory, 

 but unfortunately Mr. Brown has not hesitated to express his 

 confideut opinion, often manifestly the merest supposition, as to the 

 distinctness of the critical plants referred to. The incapacity of 

 an individual who only knows plants in a dried state to deal with 

 critical forms cannot perhaps be better shown than by reference 

 to Mr Brown's remarks under Viola hu-tca, in which he states 

 that, although Mr. Watson, Br. Boswell, and Mr. Bennett could 

 distinguish the variety intermedin, he was unable to see any 

 difference. * 



The first pare, consisting of sixty-four pages of matter and six 

 plates, extends as far as Cel axtrace*. Eight pages are occupied by 

 additions and corrections" to the preceding fifty-six One is 

 almost tempted to indulge in a Watsonian calculation as to the 

 total amount of corrections to these fifty-six pages which may be 

 anticipated before the work is finished, if eight pages are necessary 

 during the actual printing of them, to say nothing of corrections to 

 the corrections We are surprised that Messrs. Bell did not see 

 tlie desirability of reserving the corrections until the Supplement is 

 completed. LL 



104 T ™ C n°f na T * '^T 1 ! t0 tbG end 0f Rmac ''<*> and consists of 



IhLl fli ,o„ T 1 ?? i " ^ P J4*' ™ d this of an Produced 

 plant, although the stated object of the work is to give "coloured 



figures of British plants." b **«umtu 



