FIFTY YEARS OF BOTANY IN BRISTOL. 2$ 
then was contemplated. The compiler of this book was extremely 
fortunate in his botanical friends and co-workers, particularly in 
those resident in outlying portions of the district whose help was, 
of course, invaluable. For example, the neighbourhood of Wells 
and Glastonbury had become intimately known to Miss Livett 
and to Mr. Murray the author of the Flora of Somerset ; while the 
country between Bristol and Bath and the whole extent of the 
Chew Valley had been thoroughly explored by the late Mr. David 
Fry. In after years Miss Livett did good service at Clevedon 
where she still resides. Mr. Fry was one of the most exact and 
careful botanists of his day. Taking up the study late in life, he 
needed but little help in his endeavour to understand our critical 
plants ; those of us who offered to be guides or tutors were 
speedily outstripped and left behind. His acute mind seemed 
instinctively to grasp the salient points of any bramble, hawkweed 
or sedge that presented itself for determination, and he spared 
neither time nor labour in arriving at the truth. Few, indeed, are 
the mistakes that could be laid to his charge. Had his energies 
been directed to botany at an earlier age he would certainly have 
taken a high place among the expert botanists of the country. 
The following are some of the rarer species first detected near 
Bristol by Mr. David Fry : — Rubus fissus ; R. nitidus ; R. sulcatus ; 
R. mucronatus ; R. Borreri ; Epilobium Lamyi ; Juncus com- 
pressus ; Car ex acuta. 
A further twenty-five years of persistent field work, shared by 
other members of the B.N.S. and controlled and tabulated by the 
same author, culminated in the production of the Flora of Bristol 
(1912). This volume of 700 closely printed pages gives an account 
of all the flowering plants, ferns and their allies, that have at any 
time been recorded within the district, aliens as well as natives ; 
with notes on the origin of the flora ; the distribution of the rarer 
plants as affected by rocks and soils ; the topography and physical 
features of the area ; and a biographical sketch of the byegone 
botanists who have engaged in botanical research at Bristol during 
the past 350 years. The writer and his assistants had abundant 
reason for gratification on the completion of so protracted a labour. 
Reviewers and British botanists in general very amiably agreed in 
commending the work as ' ' a splendid book full of interesting 
matter" and "an admirable example of how such things should 
be done." 
The natural advantages of our city as a botanizing centre have 
been in good repute for centuries. Attracted by the fame of her 
limestone plants and of the Avon scenery, generations of scientific 
visitors and strangers of all grades have travelled here to sample the 
rich vegetation that the district affords. And it has happened, 
now and then, that one or other of such visitors has been the first 
to point out the presence of very interesting species. Thus we 
owe Linosyris vulgaris, as it now exists, and Koeleria vallesiana to 
Mr. Claridge Druce, of Oxford ; Pyrus intermedia, Rubus Gelertii 
