i88o.l 
7i5 
Analyses of Books. 
that beautiful county, some of the loviest species, such as Poly- 
podium phegopteris and P. dry op ter is, are now described as “rare 
and local,” “ very rare.” 
Concerning Osmunda regalis, the king of our British ferns, it 
is remarked: — “Considerably reduced in quantity through the 
plants being dug up and brought for sale to Plymouth and other 
large towns. All who value and wish to preserve the natural 
floral and vegetable beauties of the neighbourhood should do 
their utmost to prevent and discourage the selling in the streets 
of recently uprooted plants of the Osmunda and of our other 
ferns and wild plants.” This caution is the more reasonable 
since many specimens are torn up at the wrong season of the 
year and so carelessly that they generally perish. It will become 
necessary for naturalists who find a good locality for any of our 
rarer and more conspicuous wild plants, and indeed insedts like- 
wise, not to make the matter public, since information intended 
for the botanist or the entomologist falls into the hands of 
dealers, who at once send their agents to make a clean sweep. 
As regards flowers and ferns, the recent London practice of 
buying pot-plants in the spring, letting them perish in the winter, 
and getting a fresh stock the next year, tells disastrously upon 
every species that cannot be propagated as easily as the scarlet 
geranium. 
The lily of the valley, one of the loveliest members of our 
native flora, is still met with in the Plymouth District, but is very 
rare. We know an instance of a country gentleman who had 
noticed with regret the gradual disappearance of this plant from 
his grounds, on coming up to London and taking a stroll through 
Covent Garden was offered for sale a quantity of roots fresh from 
his own park. His gardener and gamekeeper were in the pay of 
a dealer ! 
It is remarkable how easily beautiful species are extirpated 
whilst noxious and unsightly weeds gain ground in spite of all 
human diligence. 
The author sometimes mentions interesting facfts relating to 
animals. Thus we learn that an oil-beetle, Meloe pr oscar abceus, 
or in more modern nomenclature Proscaraboeus vulgaris , feeds 
upon the acrid and poisonous Arummaculatum. 
The account of the climate of the district is very interesting, 
The annual average temperature is higher by 2*56° than that of 
Greenwich. Spring frosts are, however, very frequent and de- 
structive, and mild as are the usual winters ever and anon a 
severe season makes havoc among tender plants, ihe cultivation 
of which is never even attempted in the open air in most parts 
of England. The air is more uniformly moist and the sky more 
generally over-cast than in the more eastern parts of our island, 
— circumstances which cannot fail to leave their impress on the 
local vegetation. 
Mr. Briggs’s work bears the impress of thoroughness and 
