THE students' HANDBOOK OF BRITISH HEPATICS 317 



tinctive feature according to Dr. Gliick is the strongly reflexed 

 lateral sides of the lower lip of the corolla, but my specimens 

 were either nearly flat or reflexed, indifferently. Certainly w^hen 

 I gathered these flowers (out of hundreds) more than one-third of 

 the number w^ere more or less plane. I am under the impression 

 that age or sunlight (or both) is responsible for the difference. 

 My own impression is that on a bright day all will be plane! " 

 But I think Mr. Pearsell misunderstands Dr. Gliick, as the latter 

 says distinctly, "Labium inferius semper planum et rotundum." 

 Anyhow the flowers are conclusive, as most of the flow^ers sent 

 are quite rotundate and unlike any form of minor I have seen. — 

 Arthur Bennett. 



Utricularia ochroleuca Hartm. — Among the numerous 

 specimens of so-called " intermedia " in the herbarium of the 

 Perth Museum, there is one specimen of true intermedia gathered 

 by the late A. Sturrock in E. Perth. — Arthur Bennett. 



BEVIEJVS. 



The Students' Handbook of British HejKctics. By Symers M. 

 Macvicar. With illustrations by H. G. Jameson. East- 

 bourne : V. T. Sumfleld. London : John Wheldon & Co. 

 1912. Pp. xxhi and 463 ; 274 figs. Price 18s. 6d. net. 

 The study of British bryology, after a period of comparative 

 neglect, has of late years become once more attractive to students. 

 In the matter of mosses the way has been made easy by the 

 publication of Mr. H. N. Dixon's excellent Students' Handbook, 

 which is already in its second edition. For hepaticologists, how- 

 ever, the way has not been so clear. There has been no such 

 comparatively cheap work which provides authoritative descrip- 

 tions and accurate drawings of each species. Mr. Pearson's w^ell- 

 known Hepaticm of the British Isles is beyond the reach of the 

 ordinary student. In recent years, too, the study of hepaticology 

 on the Continent has been keener than in our own country. For 

 instance, Schiffner, Warnstorf, K. Miiller, Massalongo, Douin, and 

 others, have been actively engaged. And we should probably 

 have failed to keep in touch with the advance made by these 

 foreign workers (such things indeed have happened in the past in 

 regard to cryptogams), had it not been for the lists, papers, and 

 notes pubhshed by Mr. Symers M. Macvicar in this Journal and 

 elsewhere. This work Mr. Macvicar has now supplemented by 

 embodying in book form his knowledge, the results of his researches 

 in the field and in literature, and his matured opinions. 



His Students' Handbook of British Hepatics provides us with 

 a systematic, descriptive and illustrated account of all the hepatics 

 recorded for our islands, preceded by an introduction dealing with 

 the more general topics — morphology, reproduction, &c. The 

 system of classification adopted is mainly that of Schiffner in 

 Engler's Natilrlichen Pflanzenfamilien. The number of species 



