92 gray's elements of botany. 



The " County Catalogues " begin with a list of Breconshire 



"new records" observed by Mr. W. Bowles Barrett in 1884, which 



for the most part correspond with the more complete enumeration 



of the plants of that county printed in this Journal for 1885. Mr. 



Lees, on the principles of the Becoj-d Club, is fully justified in 



including them in this Report, but it would, we think, have been 



convenient to refer his readers to the more detailed paper published 



in these pages. Is Mr. Barrett responsible for the note on p. 143, 



which runs : " The following, also, are additional Breconshire 



Records, not heretofore published, communicated to me by the 



botanists named in each case. They were included in my paper in 



Journ. Bot., with names of finders attached. — W. B. B." If " not 



heretofore published," how could they have been " included in [his] 



paper in Journ. Bot."? It is certain, moreover, that "Lady 



Wilson" and " Sowerby," whose names are attached to two of the 



plants in question, did not themselves communicate with Mr, 



Barrett. Mr. Ley's Radnorshire list has much in common with 



Mr. Ridley's, published in this Journal in 1881, although it includes 



two noteworthy additions, Potentilla rupestris and Allium Schceno- 

 prasiim. 



It is matter for satisfaction that the voucher-specimens on 

 which these records of the Club are based are now accessible to the 

 public in the Natural History Museum. No doubt anyone engaged 

 on a local flora would consult these specimens, and this would be 

 desirable, as, in spite of the great care exercised by Mr. Lees, 

 errors will creep in. Thus the specimen on faith of which SdrpW 

 aticularis is recorded in the present Report for Cardigan is not that 

 species, but S. setaceus; and other examples of misnaming might be 

 adduced. On the other hand, Mr. Druce's specimen of Schoenus 

 nigricans, as to the occurrence of which in Glen Shee Dr. White 

 expresses some doubt, is certainly that species. 



May we utter a word of protest against the peculiar phraseology 

 in which these Reports are couched? " Gracile" (pp. 134, 135, &c.) 

 seems needless when we have so good a word as slender ready 

 to hand. 



The Elements of Botany for beginners and for schools. By Asa Gray. 

 Revised edition. New York: Ivison and Co. London. 

 Triibner. 1887. 8vo, pp. 226. 589 cuts. 



This new edition of an old favourite should have been noticed 

 before ; but the delay has given an additional interest to the work, 

 for we now know it as the last which will come from the hand of 

 the venerable and kindly writer. It takes the place, as the author 

 tells us in his preface, of his - Lessons in Botany,' published over a 

 quarter of a century ago, and " is a kind of new and revised edition 

 of that successful work." It is meant to occupy in the higher 

 schools the position which « How Plants Grow " fills in the com- 

 mon schools, and " is intended to ground beginners in Structural 

 Botany and the principles of vegetable life, mainly as concerns 

 Flowering or Phanerogamous plants, with which botanical 

 instruction should always begin/' 



