A SHORT FLORA OF CAMBRIDGESHIRE 99 



The Desmidiacece are only briefly mentioned as plankton- 

 constituents, whereas their treatment should have been much 

 fuller. No group of Green Algae contains so many exclusive 

 plankton-species and varieties as the DesmidiacecB, and, moreover, 

 they are (with the exception of a few species of Surirella omitted 

 from this work), the only constituents which give the freshwater 

 plankton a definite geographical character. This brief mention of 

 plankton-Desmids is in great contrast to the more extended treat- 

 ment of many genera of the Protococcales, which are only casual 

 plankton-units. 



One of the best parts of the work is that which deals with the 

 methods of collection, the apparatus used for this purpose, and 

 the quantitative estimation of results. The text-figures are all 

 good, but the plates are rather poor. 



G. S. West. 



A Short Flora of Cambridgeshire chiefly from an Ecological Stand- 

 point, ivith a History of its chief Botanists. By A. H. 

 Evans, M.A. The Lower Cryptogams by the Eev. P. G. M. 

 Khodes, M.A., G. S. West, M.A., D.Sc, F.L.S., and F. T. 

 Brooks, M.A. [Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical 

 Society, vol. xvi. part 3.) Cambridge : at the University 

 Press. 8vo, wrapper, pp. 197-284. December, 1911. 

 [Price not stated.] 

 In this carefully executed pamphlet of less than a hundred 

 pages, something like a new type of local flora is set up. The 

 work is divided into various sections : the first deals with Cam- 

 bridgeshire Botanists ; the second with " the physical features of 

 Cambridgeshire, with its geological formations and their attendant 

 Flora"; the third is an "annotated List of some of the rarer 

 plants, many of which are now extinct " ; the fourth, which 

 occupies the remainder of the book, being a " general list of 

 species." In this the distribution of the Angiosperms and Pteri- 

 dophyta through the districts of Babington's Flora is indicated 

 but definite localities are rarely given. The Cryptogams are 

 treated more fully in this respect : the Characece have been revived 

 by the Messrs. Groves ; the Algge are very fully dealt with by Dr. 

 G. S. West, with descriptive and critical notes and full localities ; 

 of the Fungi Mr. F. T. Brooks gives only a Hst and Mr. Ehodes 

 does the same for the lichens. 



The chief interest of the book lies in the three first sections. 

 That on Cambridgeshire botanists might have been more informing 

 without appreciably adding to the space it occupies : for example, 

 by adopting the plan now so generally followed of giving the dates 

 of birth and death after the name of each person cited ; it is how- 

 ever carefully done. In the second section the ecological aspect 

 of the flora is set forth ; it concludes with the following summary 

 regarding the plants stated in Babington's Flora to be lost to or 

 unknown in the county : — 



" Of the plants reported to be lost, the following are still to 



