26 



REVIEWS AND BOOK NOTICES. 



Flora of Derbyshire. By the Rev. William Richardson Linton. 



With two Maps. London, Bemrose & Sons, Ltd., 1903. 



^ The project of producing- a Flora of Derbyshire is so far 

 accompHshed that it seems desirable at length to publish results, 

 though, no doubt, further investig-ations will yield many data of 

 interest. The present work, according-ly, cannot be regarded 

 as much more than a stage forward towards a complete account 

 of the botany of the county.' These, the opening sentences of 

 the preface, are almost the review of the book. The skeleton 

 of a count)" Flora — the list of plants known in Derbyshire, with 

 localities, period of flowering, and the other items usually 

 mentioned in a county Flora — is here ; and it is a record which 

 will g-o down to posterity with probably few changes. The life 

 which is to make the dry bones live, however, is not yet present. 

 Some attempt has been made, by means of introductory pages 

 and maps, to cover the skeleton with a flimsy garment, which it 

 is to be hoped will some day be replaced by more substantial 

 clothing. In short, the Flora of Derbyshire is an example of 

 the usual type of a British County Flora. The aid of botanists 

 in the county has been fully utilised to make the list of species 

 and records as complete as possible, and specialists have assisted 

 in difficult identifications. The known plants of Derbyshire are 

 carefully recorded, and field botanists will find the book a trust- 

 worthy guide to species of flowering- plants, ferns, and muscineai. 

 The mosses and hepatics appear to be more fully dealt with 

 than is usually the case in county Floras. The records of 

 localities of all the plants are numerous, and will certainly assist 

 local botanists. The range of altitude of the species is hardly 

 ever given, so that botanists unfamiliar with Derbyshire will 

 derive little assistance in studies which require the altitudinal 

 range of British plants. The author is also too free with his 

 use of the term Miative.' It seems to us rather presumptuous 

 to give the class of citizenship of every plant in a county, 

 unless some special attention has been paid to this aspect of 

 field botany. In the case of the Flora under notice the author 

 seems to have been quite content to repeat the terms used in 

 British Floras, and we miss critical remarks on the class of 

 citizenship of Derbyshire as opposed to British plants. Thus the 

 recoi ds the strongest feature of the Flora — are not calculated 

 to assist workers in the distribution of plants in Britain as 

 a whole, or in Europe. 



Naturalist, 



