41 
V.—The Flora oe Essex ; or, a List of the Flowering 
Plants and Ferns found in the County of Essex, By 
George S. Gibson, F.L.S. 1862. 
Mr. Gibson is well known as one of the most accurate and con¬ 
scientious of our working British botanists, and this book of his on 
the Essex Flora is altogether worthy of his reputation. It appears 
to have been prepared with great pains in every way, and honest 
endeavour has been used to render to helpers their due. In accord¬ 
ance with the plan adopted in the best recently-published local 
Floras, those of Herts and Cambridge, Mr. Gibson divides the 
county into eight districts, arbitrarily bounded in the absence of 
available natural divisions, with a view to exhibit the local distri¬ 
bution of species. With regard to this division, when the areas into 
which the county is to be divided can be arranged to coincide with 
natural limits, it is desirable, as a rule, to adopt these, since they are 
frequently approximately coincident with the boundaries of peculiar 
or characteristic Floras. This is commonly due, however, to more 
favourable geological conditions, or to greater diversity of surface 
from elevation or other causes, than obtains in the comparatively 
tame county of Essex. It is possible at the same time to strain too 
much in the attempt to obtain natural boundaries for the subdivision 
of such limited tracts ; and we recollect one excellent botanist, afraid 
to do right through fear of doing wrong, who never could make up 
his mind about the divisions which he ought to adopt as the basis of 
his local distribution of species through a couple of counties. It 
must be borne in mind that different ends may be served by the 
arbitrary division of the area treated of into tolerably equal parts, 
and by the adoption of natural divisions equal or unequal. We think, 
in a very complete local Flora, the area described should, if possible, 
be treated on both methods. The census of those species indifferent 
to chemical or mechanical conditions of the soil may be fairly ob¬ 
tained by the arbitrary divisions—apart from the interference of 
elevation, &c.; while other and often important facts result from 
comparisons of the vegetation of natural areas, be they ever so un¬ 
equal in extent. Some years ago, Mr. Baker attempted to classify 
British species after the plan of Thurmann, with reference to the 
character of the soil affected by them, and the attempt was praise¬ 
worthy and in the right direction, and ought to have been seconded 
more cordially. Much of the labour expended in collecting what 
appear to be very barren facts finds now and then unexpected 
reward, and we look with confidence to the compilers of our local 
Floras for the material out of which the solution of many important 
phyto-geographical problems is to be educed. It is impossible to 
make a local Flora too complete. 
In works of this kind devoted to the vegetation of counties and 
small areas of our own islands, it would be better that the ‘ species’ 
