414 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



modestly entitled A Flora of the county, comes the first part of 

 what is styled The Flora, compiled by a special Committee under 

 the editorship of Professor Trow of University College, Cardiff, 

 published in the Transactions of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society. 

 This Committee was appointed in 1903 ; Mr. Biddelsdell's appeal 

 for help in his compilation appeared in this Journal for February 

 1904 ; and the work of both has been carried on independently. 



Mr. Biddelsdell's list has, as he tells us in his preface, u mainly 

 a personal character/' but includes the specimens preserved in 

 numerous herbaria ; he has, in accordance with general practice, 

 divided the county into districts (which has not been attempted by 

 the Cardiff Committee), and has excluded introduced species 

 (which are given in an appendix) among which he places many 

 plants native in other parts of the country but alien here, and 

 doubtful records. 



The Cardiff Committee consisted of nine members, who " at 

 once authorized the issue of circulars to local botanists inviting 

 them to become corresponding members and furnish lists of the 

 wild plants occurring in their respective neighbourhoods." It is 

 no disparagement to the Committee to say that few if any of their 

 names or those of the numerous " active corresponding mem- 

 bers " are familiar to British botanists, nor is there any indication 

 that their specimens have been submitted to any competent 

 authority. No one who has not had experience in compiling a 

 local flora can have any idea of the extraordinary mistakes in 

 identification committed by local observers ; and we note that 

 Prof. Trow says of Cerastiiim glomeratum and ft triviale : " These 

 two common and well-differentiated species are not well under- 

 stood by our correspondents." . The note continues : " Mr. Storrie 

 confuses one of their many forms with ft arvense, and is followed 

 in this error by so many others that the complete record is ap- 

 pended. It is almost certainly a case of wrong diagnosis." But 

 in spite of this caution the next entry runs : — 



" arvense, Linn. Frequent. Penarth, Dinas Powis. J. S. and 

 T. H. T. Frequent. Flora Bhondda. Frequent in fields and dry 

 places, Barry. Common, Southerndown. Miss B. Sully. Gf. 

 Hirwain? W." 



ft arvense does not appear in Mr. Riddelsdell's list ; a fact 

 which seems to show r that its recorders can hardly claim implicit 

 credence even with regard to " common and well differentiated " 

 (and therefore much less in the case of really critical) species. 

 But would it not have been wiser to suppress the record until 

 confirmation had been obtained ? 



Although this Journal appears in the list of works consulted, it 

 would appear that this has been done very incompletely. For 

 example, Viola stagnina, said to "require confirmation," was duly 

 recorded for Gower by Mr. Riddelsdell in 1904 (p. 312) ; Hutchinsia, 

 for which Pennard Castle is the only habitat given, was recorded 

 from Worms Head by T. B. Flower in 1877 (p. 180). 



The list is swelled by the inclusion of aliens and erroneous 

 records, in type not differing from the indigenous species. It is 



