ARTICLES IN JOURNALS. 285 



Babington and Hooker might have been included. After the 

 copious index is a table for the determination of the families of 

 flowering plants, probably about as useful as most of the kind, 

 though the indication, "Bluthen mit Discus; Disciflorse: do. ohne 

 Discus; Thalamiflorae,'' does not look hopeful. The thirteen plates 

 contain sections of the flower, fruit, and seed of the orders of 

 flowering plants, arranged according to the Genera Plantarum. The 

 sketches are clear and sood, and will doubtless prove a useful 

 addition ; they are, as acknowledged in the preface, mostly copies 

 from Schnizlein's Iconographia. A. B. Rendle. 



Grasses. By C. Henry Johns, M.A. London: S.P. O.K. 8vo, 



pp. 96. Price Is. 6d. 



This little book begins badly. It is called " Grasses," whereas 

 a third of it is devoted to Sedges : it is styled " An Appendix to the 

 late Eev. C. H. John's Flowers of the Field," whereas everyone 

 knows that the author of that work was named C. A. Johns : and 

 its cover is— we can hardly say ornamented— with a figure of Typha 

 latifolia, which of course is not a grass. 



Flowers of the Field, which first appeared in 1853, and has run 

 through some twentv-six editions, occupying a position between 

 the gossipy and usually inaccurate books about "wild flowers" and 

 the recognised floras, was in its day a useful book for beginners. 

 It migbt be made so now, if it were brought up to date, but each 

 "edition" is a mere reprint : it gives a very imperfect notion of the 

 British Flora as at present known. 



Unfortunatelv, the same must be said of the Appendix now 

 before us. We find no mention of Spartina alternifiora, S. Towmendi, 

 Anthoxanthum Piielii, Apera interrupta, Psamvia baltica, and others, 



while the more critical genera are dealt with very perfunctorily ; 

 and among the Sedges (which, by the way, are placed after the 

 Grasses 1 ) there is no record of Schcenus ferrrigineus, Carex ornithopoda , 

 C. friffida, C. iistulata, and others. The illustrations, both old and 

 new, are lamentably weak, and there is not a single dissection of a 

 flower. There are many other matters for criticism, did space 

 allow; but what has been said will sufficiently show the unsatis- 

 factory character of the book. The introductory portion, and indeed 

 the whole treatment of the subject, force us to the conclusion that 

 Mr. C. H. Johns has a very slight acquaintance with either grasses 

 or sedges; and we regret that so important a body as the S.P.C.K. 

 should put forward so useless a volume. 



ARTICLES IN JOURNALS. 



Bot. Centralhhttt (No. 30).— A. Nehring, ' Die Flora des diluvi- 

 alen Torflages von Klinge bei Cottbus.'— (Nos. 31-34). E. Wilczek, 

 « Zur Kenntniss des Baues der Frucht und des Samens der Cype- 



