The British Mora. 97 
science of the day. Macgillivray's work follows the Linnean ar- 
rangement, is popular through its title, and, in its utility to students, 
may be fairly enough classed with its three competitors, though 
wanting the authority which an established botanical name, in the 
author, gives to each of the others. 
We have entered into these particulars with a view of showing 
the relation, if it may be so expressed, which the several Floras bear 
to each other, and for supplying hints to persons desirous of select- 
ing only one or two ; as it cannot usually happen that the same per- 
son should require all of them. Macgillivray's is the most elemen- 
tary ; Lindley's is the only one entirely arranged according to the 
natural system ; Hooker's may safely be said to contain the best and 
fullest description of species among these three ; while the English 
Flora, to full descriptions of the genera and species, unites the most 
complete set of references and synonyms ; and, though in its full 
size the most expensive, its Compendium is the least so. 
The advances made in our acquaintance with British plants since 
the publication of the first volumes of the English Flora, are consi- 
derable. When the fourth volume was published, seven additional 
species were added for the earlier volumes. The first edition of the 
British Flora, published two years later, in 1830, added about a score 
of others. The second edition, in 1831, contained seven or eight 
more, and the last edition increases the lists by above a dozen species. 
Five or six others are now known ; so that, in the last ten or twelve 
years, about fifty species have been added to our list cf flowering 
plants, and the additions to the cf yptogamic lists may be reckoned by 
hundreds. But our readers must not imagine that fifty undisputedly 
native species of flowering plants have been discovered during this 
period. In fact, scarcely the half of this number can be regarded as 
fixed species and undoubted natives; and even some of these had been 
heretofore found, though mistaken or forgotten. Among the most in- 
teresting and least questionable additions, may be instanced Isnar- 
dia palustris, Orobanche caryophyllacea, Erica mediterranea, Erica 
ciliaris, Elatine hydropiper, Carex Vahlii, Potamogeton praelongus, 
Staticeplantaginea,Astragalusalpinus,andTrifoliumresupinatum. 
But Pinguiculaalpina, Cotoneaster vulgaris, Scirpus Savii, Silene ita- 
lica, Hymenophyllum Wilsoni, and, probably, Habenaria chlorantha, 
had been previously observed and mistaken for other species. Trago- 
pogon major, Oenanthe apiifolia, Fedia eriocarpa, Fedia mixta, Rosa 
Wilsoni, and others, appear scarcely entitled to rank higher than va- 
rieties. Asperula arvensis, Althasa hirsuta, and Lepidium draba 
should be looked upon as introduced species. 
NO. I. G 
