222 
THE JOURNAL OF ROTAN Y 
(p. 4), from Pax and Knuth. We have, too (pp. 12-20), a compre¬ 
hensive synonymic list of the European species, excellent in itself, but 
not new; for it is extracted bodily from.Mr. Chittenden’s list of the 
members of the genus, published in the Report of the Primula Con¬ 
ference of 1913. As to the rest of the botanical information given, 
some of this is worse than inadequate, for it is largely erroneous. 
The treatment of the three common British species (all which extend 
also over the greater part of Europe) is especially unsatisfactory. 
Dr. Macwatt seems unacquainted with the work done by botanists 
during the last forty or fifty years to ascertain the distributions and 
elucidate the relationships of these species, which are admittedly very 
difficult to discriminate, owing to the readiness with which they 
hybridize, producing perplexing intermediate forms; yet these 
“ critical ” forms and their origins are now perfectly well known to 
those who have studied them, and many papers have been written 
upon them. There is, therefore, no excuse for the very out-of-date 
information given in regard to them. The author’s account of that 
exceedingly interesting plant Primula elatior Jacq. is particularly 
misleading ; it might have been written in the days of his grand¬ 
father, when there was complete ignorance among botanists as to its 
status* and distribution. 
Still, Dr. Macwatt’s book is far from being altogether without 
merit. Many of the half-tone illustrations given are quite pleasing, 
though one has seen some of them before and the naming of a few is 
questionable; the coloured plates are, however, poor and ineffective, 
being ill-reproduced. The volume contains also much information as 
to the best means of cultivating the various species of Primula, and 
this is no doubt excellent; for Dr. Macwatt is an old and enthusiastic 
grower, with a genuine love for his plants. His work is in fact really 
one for the horticulturist rather than for the botanist—and he would 
have been wise had he confined it entirely to that side of the subject, 
which he evidently understands thoroughly. Instead of this, Dr. Mac¬ 
watt has chosen to bestow upon his book an appearance of such 
extensive botanical erudition as to invite scientific criticism, and he 
can hardly complain if the botanist, finding how little of the scientific 
information given is new, criticises the book with some severity. 
____ M. 0. 
A Handbook of the Larger British Fungi. By John Rams- 
bottom, O.B.E., M.A., F.L.S., Assistant, Department of Botany. 
Based on the Guide to Soiverbg's Models of British Fungi 
.... by Worthington George Sm ith. Printed by Order of 
the Trustees of the British Museum, 1923. Svo, cloth, pp. iv, 
222 ; 141 figures in text. Price 7s. t id. 
Although based on the Guide to Sowerbi/'s Models, this, as 
I)r. Rendle shows in his preface, is practically a new book ; the intro¬ 
duction lias been greatly extended, the descriptions generally have 
been revised and enlarged, and additional matter of economic and 
biological interest has been included. 
Mr. Ramsbottom is to be congratulated in having provided an 
excellent introduction to the study of the larger British fungi. For 
many years, past, mycologists have been unable to recommend to 
