50 Gibbs: Taraxacum forms at Markland Grips, Derbyshire. 



British Dragonflies must be looked for in the way of decrease 

 only/ In Chapter VII. is given the evidence on which the 

 seven reputed British species were at one time included in our 

 list. Chapter YIII. is devoted to ' Breeding- the Nymph,' and 

 Chapter IX. to ' Preparing for the Cabinet,' a most useful and 

 fitting ending of the work. 



The book is beautiful!) illustrated with coloured plates of all 

 the acknowledged British species, and the plates generally are 

 distinctly good, the only one to which serious exception can be 

 taken being XXI Y., though in the figures of JBschna cyanea on 

 Plate XVII. the large yellow spots on the thorax should be oval, 

 and not oblong-square as depicted : this is important, as the 

 shape of these marks forms one of the best guides in distinguish- 

 ing the species from ^E. juncea. All the larger species are given 

 'life size,' the smaller species, i.e., from the genus Lestes onwards, 

 double the natural size. We are not sure it would not have been 

 better to have depicted all in the natural size, with, when 

 necessary, magnified sections showing characteristic markings 

 of segments. This is done with abdominal segments i and 2 

 in all the species in the genus Agrion, in order to show the 

 different forms of the U-mark on the second segment, and which 

 is so valuable a factor in the determination of the males of the 

 various species in this genus. 



The book is well got up, clearly arranged and printed, and 

 the paper, both of the text and plates, excellent. ■ It will fill 

 a gap which has long been waiting for it, though if the study of 

 the Odonata is pursued with the same ardour as during even the 

 past few years, we think another edition w T ill be necessary at no 

 distant date. . G. T. P. 



NOTE— FLOWERING PLANTS. 



Taraxacum forms at Markland Grips, Derbyshire. — In the course 

 of an afternoon's ramble at Markland Grips, N.E. Derbyshire, on 3rd June 

 1S99, I met with no less than four of the five named forms of the common 

 Dandelion, viz. : (1) the ubiquitous Taraxacum Dens-leonis Desf. , in the 

 rich pasture land; (2) T. cornicidatum DC. (= T. erythrospermum Andrz. 

 of Lond. Cat.. 9th ed.), abundant in the chinks of the limestone" rocks ; 

 (3) T. palustre DC, common in the marshy spots ; and (4) T. Icevigatum DC, 

 a few plants only, on a dry grassy bank at the top of the valley. This last 

 form, I understand from the Rev. W. R. Linton, has not previously been 

 recorded from Derbyshire, so at his suggestion I forwarded the specimens to 

 Mr. Frederick Townsend, and that gentleman has confirmed their identifica- 

 tion. Another interesting find on the same occasion was a form or state 

 of the common Daisy (BeUis perennis L.), without rayflorets. Several plants 

 of this curious-looking form were growing together in a damp shady spot. — 

 Thos. Gibbs, Sheffield, 6th January 1900. 



Naturalist, 



