REVIEWS 



Draivings of British Plants : Part VII - Leguminosae. Stella Ross-Craig. 76 plates. G. Bell & Sons, Ltd., 

 London, 1954; 12s. 



llie family dealt with in the seventh part of Miss Ross-Craig's series of drawings is one which is, in 

 its British representation at least, remarkably free from current taxonomic problems. Thus the claim of a 

 species to inclusion must be settled, not on its validity as a species, but on its right to be considered a 

 British plant. This can be just as personal a question as the other, with finality equally unattainable; in 

 her solution Miss Ross-Craig selects seventy-six of the eighty-seven species numbered in the Flora of the 

 British Isles. 



A few of the omissions have little real claim to inclusion; these are plants of recent or deliberate 

 introduction, casuals and escapes from cultivation. There is more to be said for five of the excluded species; 

 these are I'rifolium aureum, T. incarnatum, Vicia sativa, Ornithopus pinnatus and Lathyrus niger. The two 

 Trifoliums, having reached the stage in recognition of being assigned a vice-comital number, may justly 

 feel that they have been rather long in the British list to be thrown out now, while Vicia sativa has been 

 recorded, though perhaps not continuously, from every British and Irish vice-county. I should have 

 favoured the inclusion of these species, and should have pressed even more strongly the claims of the 

 Ornithopus and the Lathyrus. Presumably these have been excluded on the grounds that the former is not 

 known to occur on the mainland of Britain, while the latter has not been recorded within living memory. 

 That Lathyrus niger was among the first illustrations I looked for when I opened the book was perhaps 

 wishful thinking; I am reluctant to give this species up as lost. 



The nomenclature followed is, in almost every case, that favoured by the Flora. TTiere are minor 

 changes; thus Medicago hispida Gaertn. becomes M. denticulata Willd., without synonym, and M. arahica 

 (L.) All. is attributed to " (L.) Huds." Trigonella has returned to Trifolium; it is also, I think, worth noting 

 that the mystery which has so long enveloped the identity of Shamrock is a mystery no longer. 



It is difficult to fault the drawings themselves; the high standard set in the previous parts is well 

 maintained. To deal adequately with the soft pubescence of such plants as Trifolium arvense and Lotus 

 hispidus must be a heart-breaking task for both illustrator and reproducer. There are full dissections of 

 the flower on every plate; in these the broken line is sometimes used without its significance being either 

 obvious or explained. I felt less satisfied than usual with the plate of Trifolium medium (25); the flowers 

 are less spreading, and so the inflorescence is more compact-looking, than I think should be. Nor is there 

 any indication of the aptness of the British name of " Zigzag Trefoil." The plate of Lotus corniculatus (43) 

 does not show flower-buds, and so an important diagnostic difference between this species and L. uliginosus 

 - direction of calyx teeth in flower-bud - is missed. The appearance of the " false septum " in the fruits 

 of Oxytropis (52G, 53J) scarcely tallies with the descriptions published in the Flora; I feel that this may 

 be due to an over-simplification in the text of the latter. 



As I looked at these drawings, I had a growing conviction that I recognise rare plants from black 

 and white drawings more readily than I do common ones. I suppose the explanation is that I only see the 

 rare ones as black and white drawings; the common ones I see often enough in the field, and colour must 

 play an important part in recognition. Miss Ross-Craig has done what she could to make good this deficiency; 

 there are very full descriptions of flower colour throughout. Indeed, some of these are almost lyrical, though 

 I feel she has done rather less than justice to the colour-range in the flowers of Trifolium molinerii (28) and 

 T. repens (37). 



I have only detected one typographical error in this excellent work - glycyphyllos is mis-spelt both in 

 the text and the index. 



R. Mackechnie. 



Vascular Plants of Illinois. George Neville Jones and George Damon Fuller. 4to, pp. xii -f 593, vegetation 

 map and 1,375 small outline maps. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, and Illinois State Museum, 

 Springfield (Museum Scientific Series, vol. vi), 1955; $10.00. 



What does a British botanist know of the State of Illinois ? That one of the world's greatest cities, 

 Chicago, is at its north-east corner on the shore of Lake Michigan, while the whole of its western border 



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