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ance of "Obolatia borealis O.K.," and also the many hundred 

 Tragacantha, names abandoned even by their parent. 



B. Daydon Jackson. 



The Flora of Kent. By A. D. Webster, F.B.S.E. Bromley, Kent : 

 Strong & Sons. 8vo, pp. 34. 



It was only last September that we noticed a ' Flora of Kent,' 

 and already there is another ! After long neglect on the part of 

 British botanists, the "garden of England" is the recipient of 

 attentions which are even less flattering. Mr. Webster's book, 

 like Mr. Fielding's, emphasises the need for the work which Mr. 

 Hanbury has had in hand for many years, and which Mr. Marshall 

 will, we hope, speedily bring to a successful issue. The author 

 must be credited with good intentions, of the kind of which a 

 certain pavement is said to be made, but these hardly atone for the 

 audacity of claiming for this curious little pamphlet so ambitious a 

 title. Mr. Webster indeed says it ''must not be considered as at 

 all a complete list" of Kentish plants : why then does he adopt so 

 misleading a name? 



Judged by this book, the Flora of Kent presents many curious 

 features. The following plants are said to be "rare": — Stellaria 



; - 



Crrnis rirens, Lapsana communis, Lamium purpurea™, Polygonum 

 Persicaria, and many more of the same category. On the other 

 hand, two Panicums, Lepturus incurvatus, Hordeum maritinium , 

 and indeed every grass, save one, are "more or less common 

 throughout the county." The exception is Poa alpina, justly 

 characterised as "a rare plant in Southern England at least," 

 which "grows on high sandy ground above Shorncliffe." This is 

 not the only plant which here receives a notable extension in 

 range : of Saxifraga liypnoides, for instance, " several large patches 

 occur by the roadside near Keston Church, and far removed from 

 house or home. It may have been introduced here, but this, for 

 various reasons, is improbable, though not impossible." Mr. 

 Webster does not state these reasons, but he thinks S. umbrosa 

 was "probably introduced," and we agree with him. Cornus 

 suecica has not, we believe, been previously recorded from " near 

 Lighthouse, Dover": it probably came south with Poa alpina and 

 Junipems nana, the latter recorded by Mr. Webster from "near 

 Downes Court Farm.'-' 



The pamphlet is enriched with occasional critical notes, of 

 which the following is a specimen: — "There is a very distinct 

 form of the Sea Lavender, named S. Limonium cordata, which 



occurs plentifully on the chalk rocks in Eastwear Bay It is 



of much smaller, and more compact growth, than the species with 

 spatulate leaves, that are three-nerved and pointed and have the 

 branches angular and the flower petals emarginate." There are 

 other curious things, such as the spelling of many Latin names 

 and some English ones, such as " Butterbeer," " Climbing Polygon," 

 and "Loud Phleum"— the last scarcely more absurd than many 



