94 The British Flora. 



worshippers of the gentle goddess, whose name now stands so con- 

 spicuous on so many botanical title-pages, and, for whose honour, 

 such countless thousands of fair and fading flowers are annually me- 

 tamorphosed into the more enduring and brunette mummies of the 

 herbarium. Economists, without being very political, are sufficiently 

 aware that an increasing number of consumers soon leads to an in- 

 creased production of the articles consumed, to competition, to im- 

 proved quality, and to cheapness ; — advantages pressing upon each 

 other in rapid succession. Thus has it been with the works descrip- 

 tive of British botany, dating from the publication of the first vo- 

 lume of the English Flora, in 1824. Never before has there been 

 so large a number of purchasers ; never so many new, or newly ar- 

 ranged, works ; and never so much of diversity and excellence in 

 plan, arrangement, and execution. It would seem that we have now 

 reached the point when a new Flora, in the full sense. of the term 

 new, has become impossible, and when there is scarcely any space 

 left for thrusting in a newly dressed one. The two Floras, named 

 at the head of this article, stand pre-eminent in utility to British bo- 

 tanists. The English Flora will long rank as a standard work of 

 consultation, both on account of the number and accuracy (generally 

 speaking) of the synonyms and references to other authors, and on 

 account of the full and original descriptions of species. But this 

 work being too bulky for the valise of the tourist, and too expensive 

 for the pocket of the young student, a Compendium of the English 

 Flora, was published in one thin 12mo volume, containing little more 

 than the specific descriptions taken from the larger work, with the du- 

 ration, time of flowering, and usual situation of each species, expres- 

 sed by abbreviations. The same course had been followed with the 

 Flora Brilannica, of which the English Flora may be looked upon 

 as an improved and enlarged translation. The smaller work, how- 

 ever, was insufficient without access to the larger, and the larger 

 work was inconvenient in use without the smaller and more portable 

 one. As a teacher of botany, it appears that Dr Hooker felt the 

 want of some intermediate work, including sufficiently complete de- 

 scriptions for enabling a student easily to determine the species, 

 without being swelled to a voluminous size by references of little 

 value to mere students. This happy medium, it must be allowed, 

 has been successfully hit upon by the author of the British Flora ; 

 who has compressed into a single 8vo volume all the most essential 

 points of description spread through the four volumes of the English 

 Flora, besides effecting considerable improvements in some of them. 

 So far, these works included only the flowering plants, belonging to 

 the first twenty-three classes of the Linnean system, with the order 



