502 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
April 9, 1898. 
Queen Victoria, as the tribute of a student 
of the Royal county to his sovereign. The 
author, Mr. George Claridge Druce, has 
previously given the Flora of Oxfordshire and 
the Flora of Northamptonshire to the world, 
notwithstanding his regular duties, so that 
his time for many years past must have 
been laboriously occupied ; and only the 
pleasure attached to field botany and his 
love for the subject could have induced 
him to give such unremitting attention to 
the subject as he musit have done. His 
leisure time for the past ten years has been 
devoted to the visiting of every one of the 
180 parishes into which Berkshire is 
divided, for the purpose of noting the wild 
plants of the respective districts. How¬ 
ever minute and assiduous the research of a 
botanist may be, Mr. Druce wishes to 
impress upon the mind of his readers that 
no finality can ever be attained. This 
would be sufficient to frighten some be¬ 
ginners and would-be botanists off the field ; 
but it may be admitted that those lacking 
a certain amount of perseverance, and a 
real love for the subject, deserve to be 
frightened from the domain of botany. 
Mr. Druce found numerous students, how¬ 
ever, of kindred tastes to his own, and 
enthusiastic helpers, all of whom he warmly 
thanks. Amongst others, we note Mr. 
Frank Tufnail, F.L.S., of the floral depart¬ 
ment of Messrs. Sutton & Sons, Reading, 
an enthusiastic botanist, who devotes much 
of his leisure time to hunting up and 
localising the flora of a wide district around 
Reading. Gardeners could do much worse 
than study the flora of the British Islands, 
which represents nearly the half of the 
natural orders of flowering plants on the 
globe. The correct observation to be 
acquired in work of this kind cannot be 
otherwise than helpful to cultivators, which¬ 
ever class of plants they may ultimately be 
called upon to tend and grow. 
The introduction and plan of the flora 
occupy 200 pages of closely printed matter, 
and would in themselves constitute a book 
of many interesting details concerning the 
county either directly or indirectly in its 
relation to the wild plants. The flora 
proper, including an index, runs to another 
644 pages, the book being a large octavo 
size. A considerable portion of the intro¬ 
duction is taken up with the geology of 
Berkshire, which we consider a most inter¬ 
esting feature in relation to the species of 
plants which grow upon the difleient forma¬ 
tions. Those which come to the surface 
within the county are confined to the 
Secondary, Tertiary and Post Tertiary 
rocks. The lowest or oldest beds in point 
of geological time belong to the Oxford 
Clay. Lists of characteristic plants on the 
several formations are given. The water 
supply from different formations has no 
doubt as much to do with the kinds of 
plants in a district as the soil itself. We 
note that the chalk hills of Berkshire give 
a flora closely similar to what occurs on the 
North Downs of Surrey and Kent. The 
botanical districts have been named from 
the principal rivers running through the 
county, which we may here indicate as a 
purely arbitrary arrangement ; it could 
hardly be otherwise when one comes to 
consider the physical geography of Berk¬ 
shire. The Thames bounds the county on 
the north and east, winding about in a most 
remarkable manner. The flora in several 
of the bordering counties on the opposite 
bank of the river must needs be the same 
or closely similar to that under consideration. 
Commencing on the northern border of the 
county we have the(i) Isis, as the Thames 
is named beyond the city of Oxford. 
Further south we have the (2) Ock (3) 
Pang (4) Kennet and (5) Loddon rivers, the 
general trend of which is east and north¬ 
east till they lose themselves in old Father 
Thames. The figures indicate the five 
botanical districts chosen by Mr. Druce 
under which to classify the stations or 
localities in which the species enumerated 
have been found wild. The author’s 
summary gives 893 plants native to Berk¬ 
shire, 45 which are denizens only, and 56 
colonists, making in all 994. To these are 
added 11 of uncertain record; 4 that are 
probably extinct ; and 199 of casual occur¬ 
rence, giving a grand total of 1,208 species. 
The items that strike us as the most 
remarkable are the four extinct species (we 
should have thought there would have been 
40 at least), and the 200 casuals. We 
added one to Mr. Druce’s record, for we 
have had Xanthium spinosum from the 
neighbourhood of Waltham St. Laurence, 
the author of the book mentioning an 
instance from Wiltshire only. We have 
also gathered it several times in Kent 
within the sphere of influence of the 
London County Council. 
The amount of labour which this flora 
must have cost Mr. Druce is fully brought 
home to us when we come to consider the 
names given the species ; the authorities, 
various botanists, writers, books, herbaria, 
&c., who or which have been consulted; and 
the information here tabulated for the 
benefit of future workers in this delight¬ 
ful field of research. Some botanists are 
contented to go back to Linnaeus, the in¬ 
ventor of the binominal method of nomen¬ 
clature for their authorities ; but Mr. Druce 
commences with Turner’s Herbal in 1551, 
though that refers more to the history of 
the discoveries of plants in the county than 
to their names. What little collecting we 
have done in Berkshire we have been able 
to confirm in this comprehensive work. Of 
the genus Rubus 58 species, so called, are 
recorded for the county, independently of 
varieties and hybrids. This surely must 
be more than half the number occurring 
within the British Isles,even upon the com¬ 
putation of those who make a species out 
of very little. As a passing remark we 
might here suggest that it would have been 
a great improvement or at least an advan¬ 
tage to the student if the species admitted 
as truly native had been numbered under 
each genus. Botanists in the county must 
surely be interested in the supposed hybrid 
Strawberry, Fragaria bercheriensis, and 
Rubus rosaceus bercheriensis, both taking 
their names from “ Berkshire” latinised. 
We are pleased to note that the orange- 
coloured Balsam from America (Impatiens 
biflora) has got a footing in Berkshire as it 
has in the Thames from the Bourne Brooke 
and River Wey, seawards as far as Ham¬ 
mersmith at least, as well as in the tribu¬ 
taries of the river from West Middlesex. 
After examining a great number of the 
pages of this book we must say that the 
record cannot be otherwise than a close 
approach to the possible total of plants 
growing wild in the county whether truly 
aboriginal or introduced. A vast number 
of them are very characteristic of the flora 
of the Thames valley as we have observed 
it both in Berkshire and the lower reaches. 
This is of course what would be expected, 
leaving out of account the floras of the 
chalk downs, and those in the lower reaches 
of the river from Woolwich to The Nore, 
where the littoral is under the influence of 
the brackish waters of the tide. 
The greatest fault we find with the book 
is the extraordinary alteration of the names 
of species and even genera. To the botanist 
the alterations offer no difficulty whatever, 
because the synonyms and authorities are 
recorded, together with the dates at which 
the adopted names were first applied. This 
latter feature is a most valuable one, and 
should serve as a landmark for all future 
workers, beyond which they should not go 
without quoting authorities and authentic 
dates. The wholesale alteration of names 
is, however, a most serious one as far as 
gardeners are concerned. Whether a uni¬ 
form level can ever be reached seems on 
the face of it very doubtful. Much altera¬ 
tion is due to mere matter of opinion 
amongst different authorities; and, as in 
all other natural sciences, botany has 
attained its present high-level platform 
over the head of the accumulated pile of 
facts, observations, blunders, errors,misap¬ 
prehensions, incorrect or imperfect descrip¬ 
tion, &c., of hundreds of workers during 
past centuries. All this would have been 
of little or no moment, whatever, if the 
botanist of the present day could begin 
with a clean sheet to name and classify 
plants ; but unfortunately that method can¬ 
not be adopted, while much that is obsolete 
has to be worked into the new or modern 
fabric. 
- - ! • 
Wasps are the most inveterate enemies of flies. 
Reaumur says that he has known one wasp to kill a 
thousand flies a day. 
Mr. F. G- Brawer, for the past twelve months gar¬ 
dener to Mrs. Dymoke Green, Oaklands, near St. 
Albans, Herts., has been appointed gardener to 
Graham Fish, Esq., at the same place. 
Royal Horticultural Society.—The next fruit and 
floral meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society 
will be held on Tuesday, April 12th, in the Drill 
Hall, James Street, Westminster, 1 to 5 p.m. A 
lecture on " Blight and Blessing,” illustrated by 
lantern slides, will be given by Mr. Fred Enoch, 
F.L.S., at 3 o’clock. 
National Chrysanthemum Society. -The recent 
smoking concert held in connection with the National 
Chrysanthemum Society resulted in a nett balance 
of £8 gs. 5d., which has been contributed to the 
funds of the society. The Hon. S ewards Committee, 
through whose efforts the function was promoted, 
desire to express their thanks to the many friends 
who assisted in making the concert a success. 
Cucumber tveryday. — We learn that the new 
Cucumber " Everyday,” raised by Mr. Owen 
Thomas, of the Royal Gardens, Windsor, and 
exhibited by him at the Royal Horticultural Society’s 
meetings on December 14th, February 4th, and 
March 4th, will be sent out next year as a novelty 
by Messrs. Sutton & Sons, of Reading. On February 
4th, “ Everyday ” Cucumber received an Award of 
Merit, and on March 8th the Fruit Committee 
thought so highly of this variety that they awarded 
it a First-Class Certificate. 
Chiswick Gardeners’ Mutual Improvement Associa¬ 
tion—At the usual meeting of this society on the 
31st ult. there was a g sod attendance to hear a 
lecture on "Half an hour amongst the Ladies 
Slippers,” by Mr. A. Wright of Falkland Park Gar¬ 
dens. He explained the meaning of Cypripedium. 
and spoke of the enormous increase of varieties and 
hybrids which had made the genus one of the most 
important of the whole family of Orchids to the 
cultivator. Different types were represented by 
means of cut flowers. Touching upon cultivation he 
described the Cypripediums as terrestrial species 
which required different treatment from the majority 
of Orchids in cultivation, and ssid that the compost 
might consist of two parts of fibrous loam to one part 
each of peat and sphagnum with other accessories to 
keep the soil open. Some of the more difficult species 
to grow might have less loam. A few species were so 
hardy that they could be, and have been, grown in a 
window. The means of destroying insects were com¬ 
mented upon. He advocated the nse of something 
green as a back ground to show off the flowers to best 
advantage. In some cases it might be necessary to 
paint the walls with a gray-green to give the desired 
effect. Mr. Wright also describe 1 the process of 
fertilisation, mentioning the numerous hybrids which 
he himself had raised and flowered, as well as those 
that have not yet reached that stage. The difficulty 
of crossing the Old and New World species was com¬ 
mented upon, and much other information imparted. 
There was a good discussion 
