156 
REVIEWS OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
On the other hand, we cannot but think Mr. Armistead's observations on the 
weather and the principal meteorological phenomena observed in 1838 out of place 
in a local Flora, and that the space would have been more usefully occupied by 
remarks bearing directly on the subject of the volume. True it is that Mr. A/s 
article is highly interesting, and that it has not increased the price of the book ; 
but it should not have been introduced except in lack of matter more closely 
relating to the distribution of plants than a description of the meteorological 
phenomena of any single year. The same remark will apply to the “ Mete¬ 
orological Observations,’* pp. 133—167, except where the effect of particular 
weather on vegetation is clearly pointed out. Mr. Armistead’s paper on the 
“ Effects of the Winter of 1838, on Vegetation in the Neighbourhood of Woodside 
and Liverpool”—suggested by Mr. II. C. Watson’s article in our Vol. III., p. 241 
—is quite to the purpose. 
The omission of the descriptions of plants, with the exception of occasional 
notices respecting their peculiarities in the locality of the Flora, is judicious. 
Descriptions of each plant are wholly unnecessary in a local Flora, while they 
render the work bulky and expensive. 
We believe there are in the district more species of Salix than Mr. Hall 
mentions. Also a greater number of Carices , as he intimates to be likely at 
p. 96. Car ex binervis and C. intermedia grow on the Cheshire side of the 
Mersey, while C. pallescens , C. dioica , and C. curia are not so frequent in 
England as to render their occurrence in a small district very probable. 
The addition of a good map, on a liberal scale, is a useful appendage to the 
volume. 
The index, being made to serve the purpose of an alphabetical list of species, 
marked according to their frequency and other conditions, after the plan of the 
catalogue issued by the Edinburgh Botanical Society, is deserving of special 
mention, as worthy of imitation by other writers of Floras. 
The author has spared no pains to render his book as complete as existing 
information will allow. He has not himself resided sufficiently long in Liverpool 
to be able, unassisted, to compose a Flora of the neighbourhood ; but with the aid 
of the late and the present Mr. Shepherd, of Mr. Tudor, Dr. Dickinson, and 
others, as well as various botanical writers, he has produced a work well calculated 
to become a model for future publications of a similar nature. It is to be hoped 
Mr. Hall will not pecuniarily be a loser by his zealous and intelligent efforts. 
Geological Sketches; and Observations on Vegetable Fossil Remains, &c., as 
collected in the Parish of Ashton-under-Lyne, from the great South-Lancashire 
Coal-field, &c. &c. &c. Also an Attempt to explain the original Formation of 
