Catalogue of British Plants. 399 



whom the preparation of it has been deputed by the society. On 

 one point, however, we think some censure merited by this indivi- 

 dual, if not by the society at large. The signs or marks used for 

 indicating the comparative frequency or exotic origin of the species 

 have been most arbitrarily crossed and changed, in utter disregard 

 of the manner in which they have been heretofore applied by others. 

 The asterisk (*) has been long in use to designate an introduced 

 species, but Professor Henslow, we believe, first applied a series of 

 marks in a definite manner, and he has been since followed by others. 

 We certainly think that the Botanical Society should have paid the 

 usual deference to priority, instead of making capricious changes in 

 the use of signs purely conventional, and which could not have been 

 misapplied in the first instance. Confusion is almost sure to arise 

 from this unnecessary change, and not the slightest benefit can ac- 

 crue from it as a counterpoise to the evil. About thirty names are 

 introduced into the catalogue, as appertaining to species not record- 

 ed in the British Flora. Three or four of these may be British 

 plants, and have claim to be ranked as species. All the rest appear 

 to be mere varieties or introduced plants, or to be identical with 

 species familiar to British botanists under other names. Carex 

 Buxbaumii, Polygonum maritimum, Alyssum calycinum, and Ononis 

 reclinata appear to have the best claim to exception ; yet the two 

 last may have been introduced by human agency, and the second 

 approximates to the maritime variety of Polygonum aviculare. The 

 catalogue is well adapted to supply a standard for reference and 

 comparison of lists, and we should be glad to see the whole area of 

 Britain divided into tracts of similar extent, each supplied with 

 its floral catalogue in such a cheap and condensed form. But it 

 must be observed, that the catalogue is to be trusted as authorita- 

 tive only so far as the plants of Edinburgh are concerned. As a 

 general list of British plants, it includes all that have been said to 

 grow in Great Britain and Ireland, and this is a widely different 

 matter from a list of all that really do grow there spontaneously. 

 There are two forms of the catalogue ; in one, the list of names is 

 printed in long columns on the single side of a large sheet, which 

 can thus be folded up as a post letter ; in the other, the sheet is 

 printed in such a manner as to fold up into a fasciculus of sixteen 

 pages. 



