396 Dr Murray's Northern Flora. 



to lists of names, but it may be questioned whether their utility in 

 affording hints and information to students, should not be deemed a 

 sufficient counterpoise to any disadvantages arising from their use. 

 We care little for the grammatical, or rather scholastic accuracy of 

 either method ; its usefulness is the proper question. But we should 

 be glad to see scientific writers keep uniformity in this respect ; and 

 we would remind botanists that they cannot determine this point by 

 themselves ; it is a question equally applicable to zoology as to bo- 

 tany. 



III. — The Northern Flora ; or a Description of the Wild Plants be- 

 longing to the north and east of Scotland, with an account of 

 their places of growth and properties. By Alexander Mur- 

 ray, M. D. Part I. Edin. 1836. 8vo. 



This work is evidently the result of much pains-taking and la- 

 bour : and, although it does not exactly correspond in its plan with 

 our ideas of what a Flora ought to be, it were to assume a very un- 

 becoming censoriousness, not to admit its great merits which are 

 certain, while what we deem its faults may lie in our own disput- 

 able conceptions. It may be characterized as a faithful Flora of the 

 shires of Forfar, Kincardine, Aberdeen, Banff, Murray, and Nairn, 

 with frequent notices of the rarer plants of Ross, Sutherland, and 

 Caithness. The descriptions of the species are original, and deriv- 

 ed from specimens gathered in the district, which is as it ought to 

 be ; and to each genus there are some useful remarks appended to 

 facilitate the student's attempts in discriminating nearly allied spe- 

 cies,— rand not unfrequently a note on the validity of certain among 

 them, which may set the experienced botanist to work again. We 

 find besides, a copious list of habitats, and a detail of the medicinal 

 and economical virtues of the herbs, which occupies a space that, in 

 our opinion, might have been better occupied with their present 

 vulgar usages among the natives of these wild Highlands. It is 

 not in a " Flora" that the mediciner — qualified or quack — will seek 

 his remedies, and we botanists are too healthy a race to care for 

 these things. 



We refrain from entering into a minute examination of the book at 

 present, — when completed we may find time to write a lon- 

 ger lecture, — but we must now express the pleasure we have had 

 in perusing the notices which the preface contains of Dr David 

 Skene, a naturalist whose merits have been too long buried in for- 

 getfulness. It seems to us, that it would be erecting a just tribute 



