380 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



separate Herbarium is indispensable for the critical study of 

 British plants." Mr. Williams also mentions the special British 

 collections at Kew, as well as the specimens incorporated in what 

 he terms "the National Herbarium" — a name more usually 

 bestowed on the British Museum collection. 



The part includes the completion of the EupliorhiacecE, and 

 the orders Malvacece, Tiliacece, Elatinacece,IIypericacecB, Cistacece, 

 FranJieniacecs, Violacece, Besedacece, and Droseracece — all small 

 orders, but including some of the more interesting British plants. 

 We have more than once paid tribute to the unusually interesting 

 nature of Mr. Williams's book; no other contains anything like 

 the same amount of information as to the history of our species, 

 and the extracts from numerous early and recent works of widely 

 different character show a wide range of reading. This being so, 

 the absence of any such reference in the case of Euphorbia hiberna 

 is somewhat remarkable ; its poisonous properties were known to 

 Threlkeld and the older writers, and form the subject of an 

 interesting note by H. C. Hart in this Journal for 1873 (p. 339) — 

 see also Journ. Bot. 1912, 125 ; we note by the way that the 

 specimen in Herb. Mus. Brit, from near Dungarvan, Co. Water- 

 ford, collected by the present writer in 1880, which extended the 

 range of the species in an easterly direction is not among those 

 cited. The citation of " E. peplos " from Linn. Sp. PI. 1:56 is 

 somewhat puzzling, as the name — the old generic title — there 

 stands as Peplus. 



The treatment of species is as usual original, and will not 

 alwaj^s, we think, command general acceptance — e. g. in the 

 placing of Hypericum undulatum under H. quadrangulum as a 

 variety, in which however Mr. Williams follows Choisy in DC. 

 Prodr. i. 518 (1821). He retains Spach's genus Tuberaria for 

 Helianthemum Breweri, under which he places the Anglesea and 

 Irish plants, assigning the Jersey H. guttatum Miller to T. annua 

 Spach. Mrs. Gregory's Viola calcarea he relegates to its former 

 position as a variety of calcarea, and points out that, if the plant 

 be considered a species, it must stand as V. parvula Opiz (1823) : 

 Mr. C. E. Britton's interesting study of the variations of this 

 species (published in this Journal for 1901, pp. 111-111) is pre- 

 sented in tabular form. Mr. Wilmott's conclusions as to the 

 application of the name Viola canina are not accepted, and his 

 paper is not referred to. The part presents ample matter for 

 careful study, and the work is indispensable to those interested in 

 the history of British plants. 



Die PalcBobotanische Literatur. Compiled by W. J. Jongmans. 



Vol. ii. pp. 117. Price 18 Marks. Jena : Gustav Fischer. 



This volume contains a list and analysis of the literature on 

 palaeobotanical subjects published in the year 1909, together with 

 a considerable number of additions to the former volume, which 

 dealt with the work of the year 1908. The size of the present 

 part is much larger than that of its predecessor, the plan remain- 

 ing the same. In the first portion a list of some four or five 



