REVIEWS. 
77 
has here given us no less than forty-eight views of the earth as supposed 
to he seen from the sun at different hours and seasons, and he has also pre- 
pared five enlarged sun-views of England, and a diagram representing the 
earth’s daily motion in her orbit. The figures of the globe are drawn in 
slate-colour on a black ground, the continents being mapped out in brown. 
The fact that the figures are as true for a hundred years hence or a hundred 
years ago, it is unnecessary to point out to our astronomical readers. The 
pictures hitherto published have been of a very imperfect and limited cha- 
racter; but Mr. Proctor’s have been prepared with an accuracy which must 
have entailed no small amount of calculation. The book is accompanied — 
at least the copy forwarded to us is — by four quarto charts, which still further 
display the immense pains taken by the author to lay down a royal road” 
for the amateur. These are (1) a chart of the Zodiac ; (2) a chart of 
Mars, showing its different appearances at different periods of the year ; (3) 
a scheme of the orbits of the Earth, Mars, Venus, and Mercury; and (4) a 
corresponding diagram of the rotations of the orbits of Neptune, Uranus, 
Saturn, and .Jupiter. In the name of the world of amateur astronomers we 
publicly thank Mr. Proctor for his labours in the cause of Popular Science. 
THE WOECESTERSHIRE FLORA.* 
T he elaborately prepared flora which Mr. Lees has presented to the 
Worcestershire club, is a perfect model of what a work on local Botany 
should be. It is not too much to say that the author, who is a provincial 
botanist of no mean repute, has shown us what a flora should be. He has 
not simply given us a cut-and-dry list of the plants of his county such as 
we too often meet, but he has touched upon all the collateral points of 
interest which the botanist, who is not a mere dry-as-dust collector, should 
carefully consider. The distribution of plants in surface and in height, the 
relation of plants to soil and climate, the contest of families of plants for 
the tenancy of particular localities, and, finally, the separation of the indi- 
genous from the introduced species, are all matters to which Mr. Lees has 
given attention, and on which his book is full of sound information. The 
author expresses his opinion clearly and forcibly in regard to the distribution 
of Worcestershire plants, and he occasionally gives Mr. Watson a rap on 
the knuckles” for certain assertions in his Cyhele Britannica. Mr. Watson 
doubts that the Cynoglossum sylvatieum is to be found in his Mid-Severn 
Sub-Province (Worcester, Hereford, and Warwick) ; and for this scepticism 
our author takes him to task, and cites numerous authorities to show that 
Mr. Watson’s extreme caution is unnecessary, and to prove that the species 
was several times found even in Worcestershire. Of course to the general 
reader there is not much of interest in the flora of Worcester; but to 
students of plant distribution and to local botanists, its carefully prepared 
lists, its plant-lore, and its excellent maps, will be heartily welcome. 
* The Botany of Worcestershire ; or, the Distribution of the Indigenous 
and Naturalised Plants of that County, &c.” By Edwin Lees, E.L.S., 
F.G.S., Worcester. Printed for the Worcestershire Naturalists’ Club, 1867. 
