Reviews and Book Notices. 



427 



How to Attract and Protect Wild Birds, by M. Hiesemann. 



Witherby &. Co., iqo8. 86 pp., price 1/6 net. 



This is an English translation by Emma S. Bucheim, of a German 

 work, devoted to the best methods for the encouragement and protection 

 of wild birds. Hints are given as to the growth and pruning of vegetation, 

 in order that suitable nesting sites may be secured, and in addition, the 

 various types of nesting boxes are described and figured. 



An Annotated List of the Alien Plants of the Warrington 

 District. Mem. & Proc. Manch Lit. & Phil. Soc, \'ol. 52, Part III., 

 No. 15, i/-. 



We have before us IMr. G. A. Dunlop's List of Alien Plants found in the 

 Warrington district, i.e.^ within a radius of ten miles of Warring-ton, 

 Lancashire. It contains about 160 species with appended notes. That 

 such a list is interesting and useful, goes without saying ; but to us the 

 most pleasing feature is that it is work done on objects often considered as 

 only a nuisance, which are close at hand and generally very familiar. Of 

 course, to the nature student, the idea of pest or nuisance does not enter the 

 head. The Warrington List is not a very large one compared with lists 

 from other estuarine ports, e.g., those of the Humber, but this may be due 

 to the imports, or perhaps on account of there being a less area in Lanca- 

 shire as a dumping ground. Mr. Dunlop has had the usual difficulty, we 

 fear, as to what should be included and what rejected in his compilation. 

 This follows, we think, from the somewhat narrow view (pardon our 

 heresy) as to the terms ' Native,' 'Denizen,' 'Colonist,' ' Casual,' etc. It 

 has often struck us as scarcely needful that such groups should be insisted 

 upon at all, especially as the drawing of the lines of delimitation must 

 always be so difficult, and because of other reasons which we think make 

 them altogether too arbitrary. There was a time, not so remote geo- 

 logically, when no flowering plants, or very few indeed, would be found in 

 our northern counties at all — say after the Ice Age. So our present plants 

 have arrived, certainly not all at once, nor yet by any but very diverse, and 

 quite natural, agencies. This alone makes the fixing of native, denizen, etc., 

 very difficult, arbitrary, and, as all our artificial means are only phases of 

 the natural, we think scarcely necessary. Heretical it may seem, but we 

 plead for a broader outlook. Why should Papava Rhoeas, Reseda luteola, 

 Cytisus scoparins, Cardnns acanthuides, for examjDle, be dubbed alien even 

 in Lancashire? or why s\\o\x\d Lychnis githago, Lactuca muralis, etc., be 

 excluded ! Surely the latter group is as much entitled to rank as the 

 ormer, or more correctly, why exclude any of the above ? Then again, 

 some species are always going to extinction, just as species ' new to the 

 locality ' are appearing from time to time, and both by quite natural means. 

 We have no fault to find with the list under consideration, but one or two 

 notes strike us as being remarkable, e.g., that under Ranu^iculus sardous, 

 where this species seems to be included in ' these marsh plants.' We have 

 never seen R. sardous in any but dry land habitats ; the experience of 

 Lancashire observers may, of course, be altogether different. The ordinary 

 flora of Lancashire, too, must be rather a limited one if species like Vwla 

 odorata, Cytisus scoparius, and Euonyvms europoeus, formerly reckoned 

 natives in many other parts of the British Isles, are not included. Our 

 point is that all plants found on a dumping ground are not necessarily 

 aliens. It is very interesting to notice that the same recently introduced 

 plants occur again and again in the ' alien ' lists of various seaport or 

 estuarine places on all sides of our islands. Of Mr. Dunlop's 160 species, 

 116 occur also in a list for the Hull Docks {vide, 'Flora of the East Riding 

 of Yorkshire,' 1902). Remarks on the extinction of alien plants are also 

 interesting and suggestive. W^e have noted the same thing in Yorkshire. 

 At first the alien plants are often weakly annual forms ; later their place is 

 usurped by more vigorous rampant forms, generally grasses. We welcome 

 the publication of Mr. Dunlop's and all such carefully compiled contributions 

 to our local flora and florulas. 



J. F. R. 



1908 November i. 



