92 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Rudler, who, as we are told, prepared the substance of the lectures on which 
the work is founded for the press, hut certainly, between them they have 
produced a most charming little book, and one which, as a means of self- 
instruction for the young, we cannot but regard as the best guide extant to 
a general elementary knowledge of the phenomena of the world we live in. 
We should, however, doubt its fitness for use as a schoolbook, although it 
may probably serve, as Professor Huxley seems to hope, as a guide to teachers 
in giving a course of instruction to their classes. We may add that the little 
volume is illustrated with a good many wood engravings, and with several 
useful maps printed in colours. 
THE FLORA AROUND LONDON.* 
F ORTY YEARS have elapsed since the publication of the “ Flora Metro- 
politan, ” during which period the nature of the vegetation of the 
London district has to a certain extent been altered, and in some places even 
destroyed, owing to the clearing, enclosing, and building which has been 
constantly going on there, so that the character of many of the localities 
mentioned by Mr. Cooper in the work above mentioned have changed, and 
the plants which formerly grew there have disappeared. Dr. de Crespigny 
has therefore conferred a benefit on the botanical student and collector of 
plants by the compilation of a new London flora. 
Availing himself of the descriptive works on the subject, and supplement- 
ing the information derived from them by extensive personal investigations, 
the author has recorded more than 1,200 species of plants which have been 
observed within a radius of thirty miles around London. These are arranged 
in alphabetical order under flowering plants and cryptogams ; their chief 
localities are given. A series of seventy-five localities is appended, with 
lists of the plants to be found in each of them, preceded by short descriptions 
of the physical features and other characters. The object of the author is to 
show the actual occurrence of plants at the present time, rather than their 
local history in the past, and thus to render his work a handy guide to 
the botany of the metropolitan districts. This unambitious purpose its 
arrangement particularly adapts it to fulfil : the general list will tell the 
student where he may expect to find any particular plant of which he is in 
want, and the list of localities will inform him what he ought especially to 
look for in visiting them ; and as the book is so small that it may be easily 
carried in the pocket, it can hardly fail to prove exceedingly useful to the 
practical botanist. 
* “ A New London Flora, or Handbook to the Botanical Localities of the 
Metropolitan Di8tricts. ,, By E. Ch. de Crespigny, M.D., M.R.C.S. 8vo. 
London : Hardwicke & Bogue. 1877. 
