232 
REVIEWS. 
revision of some practical mind might perhaps have spared him. 
Thus he gives us the total number of flowering plants of a given 
area, then deducts the apetalous and glumaceous species, and those 
destitute of petaloid perianth; then, whatever be the number of these 
species bearing flowers of two colours, we have such number added 
to the above. The proportion of this new total with white flowers is 
next stated, and then follow the percentages of the respective colours 
based upon their own total, remaining after the white-flowered species 
are deducted. It may be all very well to put the matter in this way, 
but certainly not only thus. 
The relative prevalence of the several colours is inquired into 
under the heads of (1) the wild and cultivated species of Wiirt- 
teinburg, (2) the Flora of the Alps, (3) of Greenland, (I) of 
Spitzbergen, (5) of the littoral Flora of Europe; and, further, 
in respect to the season of the year; the various natural 
orders; and, finally, the odour of the flower. It is to be regret¬ 
ted that our author should have been willing to accept to so 
great an extent as authority for the colour of the flowers of the 
various Floras treated of, the plates of * Flora Danica ’ and the works 
of Jacquin and Sturm. As to the species of Greenland, he acknow¬ 
ledges himself wholly indebted to the plates of ‘ Flora Danica,’ while 
the colours of Spitzbergen flowers were adopted, in turn, from their 
Greenland and Alpine representatives. With such guides it must 
have been impossible to avoid much error, especially in the attempt 
to classify the flowers according to their depth of tone. 
The Flora of the Alps includes 481 species, of which 93 are 
reckoned as apetalous or glumaceous. Deducting these, Hr. v. Martens 
adds 61 to the remaining 388,61 being the number of species bearing 
two-coloured flowers. 115 of the 449, or a little above one-fourth, 
are white-flowered. These are deducted, leaving 334 with coloured 
perianths. Yellow obtains more or less in 35 per cent, of these, blue 
in 40 per cent., and red in 47 per cent. This apparently small pro¬ 
portion of the yellow series is explained by the independence of this 
colour in Alpine flowers. While 13 species have flowers of pure 
blue and but two pure red, 108 are pure yellow. On the other hand, - 
of yellow in combination, but 44 tend towards red and 4 to blue, 
while 163 exhibit various combinations of red and blue. In the 
Greenland Flora 329 species are reckoned^ of which 137 are destitute 
of petaloid perianths. 69, or more than one-third, of the remaining 
192, are white-flowered. 51 are pure yellow, 11 yellow mixed with 
red, and 5 yellow with blue. There are no pure red flowers, and but 
2 pure blue, though there are 58 of shades intermediate between 
blue and red. But 74 Phanerogams are known to the author from 
Spitzbergen. As in Greenland, yellow greatly predominates, both in 
purity and frequency. 
* Reduced in Dr. Hooker’s “Arctic Flora” to 281 species. 
