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THE MIDLAND NATURALIST. 
“ Come forth into the light of things, 
Let Nature be your teacher.” 
Wordsworth. 
THE FLORA OF WARWICKSHIRE.* 
County floras have to be used and judged from two points 
of view, the one local and the other general. They are 
wanted on the spot as a guide to collectors, and to give utility 
and precision to the work of local societies. They are wanted 
by the general geographical botanist to give him a summary 
for ready reference of the facts bearing on his science which 
a given area yields. To fulfil both these requirements in a 
satisfactory manner the author of a local flora ought to be 
well acquainted with every part of the area which his book 
deals with ; he ought to know fully, and be judicious in using, 
the material which his predecessors and fellow-workers have 
gathered ; he ought to be well acquainted not only with plants 
of easy, but also those of difficult determination ; and he 
ought to have such a general knowledge of geographical 
botany as to understand what is important and what is trivial. 
All these conditions are fulfilled by the author of the present 
work in a highly satisfactory manner. He has had more than 
twenty years’ experience of field work in the county, and, 
in spite of scanty leisure, has explored personally every 
part of it. He is well-known as one of our best critical 
British botanists, and he possesses the requisite power of 
judgment and organisation necessary to arrange in an 
orderly and readily accessible way the crowd of details he has 
collected. The result is that he has produced a book which 
is one of the best county floras that has been written, and 
which will stand as a permanent memorial of his diligence 
and ability. 
The interest of Warwick as a county lies in its being 
thoroughly typical of Midland England, apart from any dis¬ 
turbing influence on its flora brought about by proximity 
to mountains or the sea. The area of the county is under a 
* “ The Flora of Warwickshire : the Flowering Plants and Ferns,” 
by J. E. Bagnall, A.L.S.; the Fungi by W. B. Grove, M.A., and J. E. 
Bagnall. 8vo, pp. xxxi. and 519, with map. London: Gurney and 
Jackson ; Birmingham : Cornish Brothers. 
