Catalogue of British Plants. 399 
whom the preparation of it has been deputed by the society. On 
one point, however, we think some censure merited by this indivi- 
dual, if not by the society at large. The signs or marks used for 
indicating the comparative frequency or exotic origin of the species 
have been most arbitrarily crossed and changed, in utter disregard 
of the manner in which they have been heretofore applied by others. 
The asterisk (*) has been long in use to designate an introduced 
species, but Professor Henslow, we believe, first applied a series of 
marks in a definite manner, and he has been since followed by others. 
We certainly think that the Botanical Society should have paid the 
usual deference to priority, instead of making capricious changes in 
the use of signs purely conventional, and which could not have been 
misapplied in the first instance. Confusion is almost sure to arise 
from this unnecessary change, and not the slightest benefit can ac- 
crue from it as a counterpoise to the evil. About thirty names are 
introduced into the catalogue, as appertaining to species not record- 
ed in the British Flora. Three or four of these may be British 
plants, and have claim to be ranked as species. All the rest appear 
to be mere varieties or introduced plants, or to be identical with 
species familiar to British botanists under other names. Car ex 
Buxbaumii, Polygonum t maritimum, Alyssum calycinum, and Ononis 
i eclmata appear to have the best claim to exception ; yet the two 
last may have been introduced by human agency, and the second 
approximates to the maritime variety of Polygonum amculare. The 
catalogue is well adapted to supply a standard for reference and 
comparison of lists, and we should be glad to see the whole area of 
Britain divided into tracts of similar extent, each supplied with 
its floral catalogue in such a cheap and condensed form. But it 
must be observed, that the catalogue is to be trusted as authorita- 
tive only so far as the plants of Edinburgh are concerned. As a 
general list of British plants, it includes all that have been said to 
grow in Great Britain and Ireland, and this is a widely different 
matter from a list of all that really do grow there spontaneously. 
There are two forms of the catalogue ; in one, the list of names is 
printed in long columns on the single side of a large sheet, which 
can thus be folded up as a post letter ; in the other, the sheet is 
printed in such a manner as to fold up into a fasciculus of sixteen 
pages. 
