41‘2 
POrULill SCIENCE IIEVIEW. 
AVe can see very well that he has used his scissors judiciously and im- 
spaiiugly in extracting matter from the writings of Mr. Tristram and Mr. 
Houghton ; hut, so far as we have been able to see, he has not given these 
gentlemen credit for what he has taken from them. This is most repre- 
hensible. Those who know what has been accomplished in the field of 
Biblical zoology are of course aware that it is these authors, and not Mr. 
AVood, to whom we are indebted for any exact information on the matter. 
Blit the thousands who will read Mr. AVood’s volume, and who will read it 
with pleasure and profit, do not know this ; and we are pained to see that 
AJr. AA^’ood leaves them in a state of ignorance, as much calculated to enhance 
his own reputation (among this class), as it is to do a lasting injustice to 
two able and independent original observers. 
THE MIDDLESEX FLORA.* 
L ocal Floras are undoubtedly useful, but we fear that the purpose they 
serve is far from bearing a great proportion to the labour expended in 
tlieir compilation. For this reason it seems to us to be regretted that 
botanists like Dr. Trimen should devote their energies to this kind of work, 
seeing what a vast and productive field lies before them in physiological 
and fossil botany. It is, however, with the book, and not with the author, 
that we have to do, and we are bound to admit that The Flora of Middle- 
sex is one of the most complete, elaborate, and well digested lists of the 
plants of a single county ever published. Dr. Trimen and Mr. Dyer have 
evidently regarded the preparation of this work as a labour of love, and they 
have made it a most perfect thing of its kind. Indeed, there is no aspect, 
direct or collateral, of the subject which they have left unnoticed, and so 
far as Phanerogamia and the ferns are concerned, nothing could be better 
than this volume. Geology, topography, distribution, climatology, extinc- 
tion of species, bibliography, synonyms, and even the archaeology of Middle- 
sex plants — if we may use such an expression, to designate the study of old 
treatises and MSS. — have been considered by the authors. The introduc- 
tion deals with such general features of the county of Aliddlesex as the 
following: position, size, shape, boundaries, elevation of surface, geology, 
drainage, soil, woods, health, rainfall, temperature j and lastly, with the plan 
of division adopted in the Flora. The county of Middlesex has been 
divided by the authors into seven districts, and the principle followed has 
been to adhere as much as possible to the natural drainage by the various 
streams, and hence the divisions are irregular in form. But this irregularity 
i.s, as the authors point out, unimportant compared with the advantage 
derived from a purely natural system, which is divided into districts by the 
existence of water-sheds, and which has been adopted in that excellent and 
philosophic work, Mr. AVatson’s Cyhcle liritannica. The sections adopted 
• Flora of Middlesex.” A Topographical and Historical Account of the 
Plants found in the County, &c. By Henry Trinien, M.B. (Lond.), F.L.S., 
and W. T. Tliistleton Dyer, H..A. London : Hardwicke. 1809. 
