94 The British Flora. 
worshippers of the gentle goddess, whose name now stands so c 
spicuous on so many botanical title-pages, and, for whose hoi, 
such countless thousands of fair and fading flowers are annually \ 
tamorphosed into the more enduring and brunette mummies 01 cfie 
herbarium. Economists, without being very political, are sufficiently 
aware that an increasing number of consumers soon leads to an in- 
creased production of the articles consumed, to competition, to im- 
proved quality, and to cheapness ; advantages pressing upon each 
other in rapid succession. Thus has it been with the works descrip- 
tive of British botany, dating from the publication of the first vo- 
lume of the English Flora, in 1824. Never before has there been 
so large a number of purchasers ; never so many new, or newly ar- 
ranged, works ; and never so much of diversity and excellence in 
plan, arrangement, and execution. It would seem that we have now 
reached the point when a new Flora, in the full sense of the term 
new, has become impossible, and when there is scarcely any space 
left for thrusting in a newly dressed one. The two Floras, named 
at the head of this article, stand pre-eminent in utility to British bo- 
tanists. The English Flora will long rank as a standard work of 
consultation, both on account of the number and accuracy (generally 
speaking) of the synonyms and references to other authors, and on 
account or" the full and original descriptions of species. But this 
work being too bulky for the valise of the tourist, and too expensive 
for the pocket of the young student, a Compendium of the English 
Flora, was published in one thin 12mo volume, containing little more 
than the specific descriptions taken from the larger work, with the du- 
ration, time of flowering, and usual situation of each species, expres- 
sed by abbreviations. The same course had been followed with the 
Flora Brilannica, of which the English Flora may be looked upon 
as an improved and enlarged translation. The smaller work, how- 
ever, was insufficient without access to the larger, and the larger 
work was inconvenient in use without the smaller and more portable 
one. As a teacher of botany, it appears that Dr Hooker felt the 
want of some intermediate work, including sufficiently complete de- 
scriptions for enabling a student easily to determine the species, 
without being swelled to a voluminous size by references of little 
value to mere students. This happy medium, it must be allowed, 
has been successfully hit upon by the author of the British Flora ; 
who has compressed into a single 8vo volume all the most essential 
points of description spread through the four volumes of the English 
Flora, besides effecting considerable improvements in some of them. 
So far, these works included only the flowering plants, belonging to 
the first twenty-three classes of the Linnean system, with the order 
