The British Flora. 95 



Filices of the class Cryptogamia. Death having prevented Sir J. 

 Smith from continuing the English Flora through the Cryptogamic 

 class (which appears to have been his wish,) Dr Hooker, with the 

 assistance of others who have made cryptogamic plants their espe- 

 cial study, has now completed both the English Flora and British 

 Flora, by the publication of one thick volume in two separate parts, 

 the first part extending from the Musci to the Alga, and the second 

 part being devoted exclusively to the Fungi. This volume we are told 

 to receive as the fifth and last of the English Flora, or, as the second 

 and last of the British Flora. Though " English Flora, Vol. V." 

 does figure in large letters on the title-page, the plan of the volume 

 altogether corresponds with the plan of the British Flora, and is 

 widely different from that of the English Flora ; so that we are dis- 

 posed to esteem it really the second volume of the former, and to re- 

 ceive it only as a nominal continuation of the English Flora : — a 

 continuation, be it observed, which the learned author of the Eng- 

 lish Flora might have well been proud to acknowledge as his own. 

 In this view of the double-titled volume, — a view pointed out by 

 truth and justice, although it may not so well suit the booksellers' 

 fancy, Hooker's British Flora must now be regarded as the only 

 complete work on British plants ; that is, complete as respects the 

 knowledge acquired by botanists, not as respects the actual produc- 

 tions of nature ; since there appears not a chance that we shall ever 

 attain to complete knowledge of cryptogamic plants, and even yet, 

 novelties are discovered every year among the conspicuous and much- 

 hunted flowering plants. 



A hasty glance over the steps, by which the literature of descrip- 

 tive botany has arrived at its present stage of superiority and en- 

 couragement in Britain, will elucidate our remarks on the works 

 before us. In the preface to the English Flora, we have a brief 

 historical sketch of the older works in this department of botany, 

 commencing with the Phytologia of Dr How, in 1650, and coming 

 down to the publication of the Flora Britannica, in 1800 ; with no- 

 tices of a few of the more recent work. It appears that fourteen 

 descriptive Floras were published during this period of one hundred 

 and fifty years. Amongst these, Ray's Synopsis and Wilhering's 

 Arrangement reached to third editions, and Hudson's Flora Anglica 

 and Berkenhout's Synopsis came to second editions ; thus making 

 twenty publications in all. To this number we may add about half 

 a dozen others, the names of which appear in catalogues, though not 

 mentioned in the historical sketch; and also the first edition of 

 Hull's British Flora, if published in 1799. Of this latter work, a 



