Reviews and Book Xotices, 



have, for the first time in a local flora, an attempt to describe 

 the vegetation of an area as distinct from its individual and 

 especially rarer species. This is on the lines adopted by the 

 late Robert Smith in Scotland, and is one of the most valuable 

 features of the work. As we glance over the pages we are at 

 once struck with the fact that the elements of the flora have 

 long been thoroughly investigated by generations of able 

 botanists, among whom are conspicuous Bolton, Leyland, 

 Gibson, King, Nowell, and, more recently, Soppitt. Few 

 parishes can boast of such a long line of widely-known 

 workers, and it is a pleasant feature that their records stand 

 out prominently ; in fact, the additional localities and records 

 occupy quite an inconspicuous position. 



These men laid the foundation ; it remained for present-day 

 botanists to collate their records, and to deal in the light of 

 newer methods with the problems affecting the distribution of 

 species. It is in this respect that the Flora stands out in 

 striking contrast to previous eff"orts, and the authors are to be 

 congratulated on their attempt to apply the principles of plant 

 associations to it. 



The Flora has been issued as a supplement to the ' Halifax 

 Naturalist' from 1896. In 1900 the introductory chapters were 

 written, that is, in the same year as the Botanical Maps of 

 Edinburgh District and North Perthshire, by Robert Smith, and 

 three years prior to the appearance of Smith and Moss's 

 Botanical Map of Leeds and Halifax District. 



This, then, is one of the earliest attempts, but in the interval, 

 brief as it is, much progress has been made. The parish is 

 a very favourable one for the purpose, as the area is primitively 

 a moorland plateau, with relatively few disturbing elements to 

 complicate the discussion. Such being the nature of the district, 

 we are not a little surprised to find the authors commencing 

 their account of associations with the lowland division, including 

 aquatic plants, plants of cultivated ground, and railway banks. 

 In our opinion a more natural starting-point would have been 

 the areas still in their primitive condition, the vegetation of the 

 high moorlands, and after discussing the associations of this 

 region, to descend to the cultivated areas, considering by the 

 way, the influence of man in modifying the flora. The import- 

 ance of this is, that it would have suggested many important 

 considerations as to the citizenship of numerous species ; as it 

 is the authors regard as natives a number of plants which surely 

 can have no claim to be such in what is confessedly a moorland 



1904 July I. 



