286 



GENERAL INDEX. 



do not know the date of Don's seventh fascicle, but his first was not 



issued until 1804, seven years after Brown had drawn up his MS. 



description. Both in his herbarium and MSS. Brown calls the 



plant " Sagina maritima Nost.," thus showing that he considered 

 it new. 



One or two points suggest criticism, A map would greatly add 

 to the usefulness of the work. There are live indexes — at least 

 three too many, for the "topographical index," a new and useful 

 feature in works of this kind, may well stand by itself. No special 

 authority seems to have been followed for the nomenclature ; a 

 large number of specific names which require capitals are printed 

 with small initials ; the objectionable practice animadverted upon 

 elsewhere in this number of citing two authorities for a species 

 {"Glycerin aquatica (Linn.) Smith") is sometimes followed; and 

 the arrangement might be improved in many places, where the 

 name of a genus stands at the foot of one page, and that of the 

 species begins the next, or, worse still, where the latter name ends 

 a page and all the localities occur overleaf (e. g. Pyrola media, p. 91). 

 There are also some mis-spellings. On the whole, however, this 

 latest of our Floras is highly creditable to all who have been 

 concerned in its production. 



James Britten. 



General Index to the First Tiventy Volumes of the Journal [Botany), 



and the Botanical portions of the Proceedings, Nov. 1838 to June, 



1886, of the Linnean Society. Edited by B. Davdon Jackson, 

 Sec. L. S. London : Burlington House, Piccadilly. 8vo, 

 pp. vii. 427. 



This is a model index, and one of the most useful works which 

 has been published by the Linnean Society. A good index is a 

 blessing to mankind, and a good index-maker is entitled to, 

 and receives, the gratitude of his race. * A great book," we are 

 told, "is a great evil;" but it ceases to be so if it is properly 

 indexed. On the other hand, the most valuable work is to a great 

 extent deprived of its worth if it does not possess a good index. 

 A bad index is worse than none at all. To use a formula familiar 

 to many, it "leaves undone the things which it ought to have 

 clone, and it does those things which it ought not to have done/ 1 

 ihe inadequate index is only too well known to all of us ; but 

 perhaps the too complete one is even more bewildering, though 

 iiappily less common. It may be seen at its worst in some of Mr. 

 *. b-. Heath's books— in his edition of Gilpin's ■ Forest Scenery' 

 lor example, from which the following specimen may be extracted:— 



<< 



Setting sun and autumn leaves, The . 331 



» and internal forest scenes, The 331 



» and shadow, The . . .331 



w and summer leaves, The . . 331 



» Brightened gloom of the . 381 



ft Glory of the parting rays of the 831 



n Glowing colours of the . . 881" 



