232 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



if it ^Ye^e not for the more favourable conditions resulting from 

 the presence of man. How far Valerianella eriocarpa can be 

 deemed indigenous here, or in any of its localities, is a question 

 ^Yhich those who have studied the distribution of plants may be 

 able to answer. It was first described and published by Desvaux, 

 in his Journal de Botanique (ii. 314, t. 11, f. 2, 1809). — Feedeeic 

 Stratton. 



BEVIEWS. 



The Flora of Bristol. By James Waltee White, F.L.S., Special 

 Lecturer on Systematic Botany to the University of Bristol. 

 Illustrated with three plates and a map. Bristol : John 

 Wright & Sons, Ltd. London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamil- 

 ton, Kent & Co., Ltd. (Copies may be had for a short 

 time of the Author, 18, Woodland Eoad, Clifton, Bristol. 

 Price 12s. 6d.) Cloth 8vo, pp. viii, 722. 1912. 

 This charming book has evidently been a true labour of love ; 

 for Mr. White, the well-known excellence of whose dried speci- 

 mens is a sign of the care and thoroughness which distinguish all 

 his work, begins the Preface by saying that it is " the outcome of 

 an ideal hobby, cultivated in the spare moments of a business 

 career. It is not too much to say that my love of botanical 

 pursuits has brought me health, friends, and recreation, and a 

 host of delightful experiences that have amply compensated for 

 the harassing cares of an exacting occupation." 



The present work is a greatly enlarged and entirely rewritten 

 successor to the " Flora of the Bristol Coal Field," originally 

 issued (1881, &c.) in the Bristol Naturalists' Society's Proceed- 

 ings, and published as a reprint in 1886. It now appears with a 

 more appropriate title, and with the arms of the city on the cover. 

 The print and paper leave little or nothing to be desired, and the 

 subscribers received their copies at the remarkably cheap rate of 

 ten shillings. Mr. White has been very fortunate in his helpers, 

 among whom the late Mr. David Fry (most accurate of observers), 

 Mr. Cedric Bucknall, Mrs. Gregory, Miss M. A. G. Livett, and, 

 more recently, Miss Ida M. Eoper, have been conspicuous ; yet 

 such assistance, however full}^ and freely given, needs that careful 

 revision to which almost every page bears witness, and for which 

 the author's Continental explorations have well qualified him. 

 He justly claims that *' no pains have been spared in sifting and 

 verifying the enormous mass of alleged facts that have been 

 reported during the extended length of preparation. Every scrap 

 of promising information that lay outside the writer's personal 

 knowledge has been investigated, often at the cost of a day's 

 excursion to some outlying hamlet, and at the risk of offence 

 to kindly correspondents whose unsupported statements could 

 not be accepted." He has, moreover, the saving grace of humour, 

 which redeems his work from any suspicion of dulness; the notes, 

 though often fairly long, are hardly ever redundant, and (as he 

 lately wrote to the reviewer) : — " Unable, or at least unwilling, to 



