18 
HERTFORDSHIRE PLANTS. 
*311.— Spurge Laurell. Beween the hedge and a foot path that leadetli 
from St. Albans to Park Street.— Daphne Laureola. 
*324.— Osmunda. By an hedge side in a meadow on the left hand of the 
way that goes from St. Albans to Windridge.— Osmunda regalis. Not 
given in “ Flora of Herts.” Now probably extinct. 
*350-1.— White Saxifrage. G-roweth very plentifully in a field imme¬ 
diately below the Abbey Orchard at St. Albans.— Saxifraga granulata. 
*385.— Prickly Holly. In the county of Hartford.— Ilex Aquifolium. 
* Part ii., p. 23.— Shepherd’s Staff. By Saint Albans, in the Horseway 
that goeth from the Abbey Parish to St. Steven’s.— Dipsacus pilosus? 
* 37. —The more common Wild Rocket. Groweth very plentifully about 
the Abbey of St. Albans on every side, upon the walls thereof, and 
divers other wals thereabouts that are of any standing, it being either 
the nature of the mortar thereabouts to produce it, or else the seeds are 
carried upon them by the wind, or rather by birds.— Diplotaxis tenui folia. 
618.— Yellow Willow Herb, with double flowers. Groweth by Kings 
Langley in Hartfordshire.— Lysimachia vulgaris. A locality given in 
How’s “ Phytologia.” 
*626.— Common Speedwell. Particularly in Prey Wood by St. Albans. 
Very plentifully.— Veronica officinalis. 
*627-8.— Common White-flowered Ladies Bedstraw. In the Abbey 
Orchard at Saint Albans.— Galium Mollugo. 
G. Claridge Druce. 
“Evolution of Plant Life,” by G. Masses. London: Methuen and Co. 
This book forms one of the “ University Extension Series,” which Messrs. 
Methuen are publishing on historical, literary, and scientific subjects in 
connection with the University Extension Lectures. These volumes are 
intended to assist students who attend such lectures, by giving them, in a 
succinct form, the subject-matter of the different lectures. But whilst this 
is the end designed in publishing such a volume as the one now under 
review, it is to be feared that students who are not familiar with “ Sach’s 
Text-book ” or similar treatises will derive but little benefit from it, as its 
pages bristle with technical terms, the meaning of which has to be gathered 
from the book itself as the reader proceeds, as it does not contain a glossary. 
The author of this book is a thorough-going Evolutionist, and does not 
hesitate to attribute to plants the power of selection and determination. But 
whilst saying this, credit must be given him for having carefully studied the 
life-history and morphology of plants; and if one part of his book is to be 
singled out for special praise in this respect, it is that in which he treats of 
the Fungi—a department of botanical science in which he is an acknowledged 
expert. This book is well printed. It is singularly free from typographical 
errors; the only one that we have been able to discover is in the index, page 
237, where page 114 has been substituted for page 141. It only remains for 
us to sav that the student will be well repaid by a careful study of this 
book, which can be purchased for the modest sum of half-a-crown. H. 
January, 1893. 
