BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF BRITISH AND IRISH BOTANISTS.

281 that a selection had to be made; there was no hard and fast line, consequently it depended upon opinion or upon the available information whether this or that person was considered to have a sufficient claim to appear in the list. It would perhaps have been as well to have put "deceased" in the title, because it is thus limited. To this limitation is doubtless due the absence of the names of certain persons, known promoters of Botany in their time, some of whom may indeed still be living, though they have long since disappeared from active life. Concerning all such doubtful cases, and including all those without actual knowledge or an authentic record--they are numerous-it is better to be silent. I will not even suggest a list, though an examination of the Index to the Hookerian Correspondence at Kew contains material-I mean in the sense of persons having an equal claim to be included and associated with the deceased British and Irish botanists.

However, we are on safer ground when we turn to persons certainly long ago deceased. William Cattley does not appear, and I do not understand why, even on the editors' own method of selection. I am reminded of this by some enquiries just received from Dr. E. Bretschneider, the well-known sinologue and historian of Chinese Botany. Cattley was manifestly something more than an ardent horticulturist. He had a garden at Barnet, where he cultivated many choice plants, among them a species of the beautiful genus of orchids named after him by his friend Lindley. Indeed Seemann (Journ. Bot. 1865, p. 385) would seem to have found some evidence that Cattley floated Lindley's Collectanea; and Braam's Icones Plantarum China sponte nascentium was apparently based on drawings in Cattley's library.

Another name not in the Index that occurs to me is Samuel Mason, of Yarmouth, who flourished at the beginning of the present century. In the Kew library are three small quarto volumes of coloured drawings of sea-weeds, with the following note, signed Dawson Turner, 1800, in the first volume:"For the drawings contained in this volume I am entirely indebted to the delicate pencil of Mr. Samuel Mason, of Yarmouth, a most indefatigable collector, as well as a most accurate observer of these plants." Some of these drawings, I may add, are the original figures used by Turner in his Synopsis of the British Fuci. As I have already hinted, I could make a considerable list of omitted names; but I will only mention one more, and that is H. N. Moseley, the botanist of the Challenger' Expedition, who not only collected largely, but also published most valuable notes on the vegetation of many of the remote oceanic islands.

I have given a few examples of omissions in order to substantiate my criticism; but the immense amount of information brought to light concerning persons most difficult to trace,-information only to be found in the archives of the Botanical Department of the British Museum, and information extracted at a vast expenditure of time, is deserving of all our praise and gratitude.

And this little book is, after all, the foundation, and a good substantial one, too, of the history of British and Irish botanists,

which may some day develop into as complete and exhaustive a work as Colmeiro's admirable La Botánica y los Botánicos de la Peninsula Hispano-Lusitana. No other nation, I believe, possesses such a work as the latter, and no second nation, so far as I am aware, just such a work as the former. W. BOTTING HEMSLEY.

ENGLISH LOCAL BOTANY.

Flora of South-west Surrey: including Leatherhead, Dorking, Guildford, Godalming, Farnham, and Haslemere. By S. T. DUNN, B.A. London: West, Newman & Co. 1893. 8vo, pp. vi, 106. Price 3s. net.

Memories of Malling and its Valley: with a Fauna and Flora of Kent. By Rev. C. H. FIELDING, M.A. West Malling, Kent: Oliver. 8vo, pp. vi, 291. Price 7s. 6d.

On the Flora of Gloucestershire. By J. H. BURKITT, B.A. 8vo, pp. 10.

THE modest claims and neat appearance of Mr. Dunn's little book prepossess the reviewer favourably, and an examination of the work confirms the first impression. It is "a portable field-guide, suitable for the study of Botany in South-west Surrey," in no way intended to supersede Brewer's Flora of the county, nor to forestall the new Flora by Mr. Beeby to which British botanists are looking forward. The district included is defined by Mr. Dunn as "bounded on the west and south by the county boundary; on the east by the Leatherhead, Dorking, and Horsham road; and on the north by the northern slopes of the chalk range. The actual limit of the latter is conveniently indicated towards the east by the Leatherhead and Guildford road which runs just inside the district. The outer edge of the Hogsback is sufficiently definite, and the same direction is continued beyond the western end as far as the Hampshire boundary."

The author has been fortunate in securing the help of the Rev. E. S. Marshall; there are evidences, however, of painstaking and a due appreciation of the relative importance of records which induce us to believe that in Mr. Dunn we have a valuable addition to the too small number of our younger British botanists. Among the indications of youth-the one defect which is certain to disappear as years roll on-we note an amiable tendency to extend to aliens a place in our Flora: thus Hypericum calycinum may possibly be native in some localities near Dorking"; Eranthis was formerly apparently wild in Albury Park"; Martyn's locality for Anemone apennina ("Woods about Shiere and Guildford") is quoted.

66

The abbreviations are trying-e.g., "D." for De Crespigny's New London Flora, and “J. B." for this Journal--but Mr. Dunn has been anxious to economise space; this he could have done more satisfactorily by omitting the spurious "English names," such as "Cock's-foot Finger-grass and Axillary-clustered

66

Sedge," and by allowing Primrose, Groundsel, Ragwort, and the like, to appear without the unnecessary prefix, 66 common."

But, as the trivial nature of these criticisms will show, we have nothing but praise for this conscientious little book, and the botanist who visits South-west Surrey cannot do better than take it in his pocket.

What are we to say of Mr. Fielding's well-intentioned effort? Well, as 248 pages are devoted to the history of Malling, and the whole natural history of Kent occcupies only 28 pages, of which the flora claims 15, we shall not be considered to err on the side of severity if we speak of it as inadequate. In some respects it is the most remarkable flora we have ever seen, for there are next to no localities; each plant, however, has an " English name," and the greater number are found in the [Malling] district." Mr. Fielding has, we believe, lived in Kent for a great many years, and it is a thousand pities that he did not come under the influence of some capable botanist when he first began to notice plants. As it is, with the exception of a little local help and some localities from "Professor Holmes," he has been left to himself, and his acquaintance with books is most limited.

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Here are three entries from the first page of the Flora, from which our readers can form their own judgment as to the character of the list:

"Trollius Europaeus. Globe-flower; a plant common in Kentish gardens, but I cannot find that it has been discovered wild in this county."

"Delphinium consolida.--Field Larkspur. The London catalogue gives Ajacis only. I have had the Larkspur forwarded from East Kent. Mr. Hepworth of Rochester has detected it. The Faversham Floral, published many years ago, mentions it, and Hooker also claims it for Kent."

"Aconitum napellus.--Monk's hood, common wolf bane. I have seen this plant growing where I had reason to think it a native, but, as it is a very common garden plant, it may have been an escape.'

There are six Primulas in the list--vulgaris, acaulis, caulescens, veris, elatior, and hybrida—the last a comprehensive name for "the hybrid primroses between veris and vulgaris, veris and elatior, vulgaris and elatior, all found by the author in the woods around Cobham." Verbascum hybridum is similarly compounded. Arbutus Unedo appears in the list with the following note:-"Though common in some parts of Ireland as a wild tree, this shrub has never been acknowledged as an English native. In Kent, though only found in gardens and shrubberies, it, nevertheless, with two or three other trees (the evergreen or holm oak, the deodara, the Chilian or Araucanian pine, the cedar of Lebanon, and others), flourishes as if this were its native home. Perhaps it is merely reintroduced into what was once its original habitat." It is well for Mr. Fielding that H. C. Watson is no longer with us.

But we are sure that our author has the best of intentions, and the main part of the book (with which we are not concerned) shows that he is industrious. Perhaps Mr. Hanbury (who, we are glad to

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INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE DIATOMACEÆ.

assure Mr. Fielding, is not "the late ") may enable him to turn his opportunities to useful account.

Mr. Burkitt's little paper--a mere ten pages of small type reprinted from the Cheltenham Examiner of May 17th-- contains an excellent summary of the Gloucestershire Flora. It was read before the Cheltenham Natural Science Society; and is really a simple and pleasantly written essay on plant-distribution in Britain, with special application to Gloucestershire. In the last sentence we are told that "it is proposed to publish a reference list, indicating where each Gloucestershire plant is recorded"; this is good news.

An Introduction to the Study of the Diatomacea. By FREDERICK WM. MILLS. London: Iliffe & Son. 1893. Pp. xi, 243. 6 figs. of apparatus. Price 12s.

MR. MILLS has brought together the information contained in this book with the purpose of making more plain the path of students, especially those who have not access to expensive works, nor any guide to them. It would be very difficult to write a book about Diatoms without special appeal to the numerous, harmless, but eccentric class called microscopists, who seem to have marked Diatoms for their own.

This book may be divided into two parts: (1) the Introduction to the Study of the Diatomacea, and (2) a Bibliography. The introductory portion is largely concerned with apparatus for the study, but contains also information about the Diatoms themselves. That it is not illumined by any intense botanical light may be judged by the first sentence, What are Diatoms? They are a family of Confervoid Algæ," &c. It is true that there are many things in nature less confervoid than Diatoms, but we need not give examples. In seventy-seven pages, the proofs of which the author cannot have read with any particular attention, we have this introduction set forth-a humdrum performance which may be useful enough to microscopists. Pages 78-240 are occupied with a "Bibliography relating to Diatomology, by Julien Deby, F.R.M.S., collected and arranged by F. W. Mills, F.R.M.S." It is true that the author in his preface acknowledges "with gratitude the generous assistance of Mr. Julien Deby," but his own collection and arrangement of the bibliography is a small affair. Mr. Deby contributed to De Toni's Sylloge a Bibliography of Diatoms up to 1891 —a thorough and workmanlike performance. Mr. Mills has added to it references bringing it more or less up to date, including his own works, and even the work under notice, the first instance known to us of a book referring to itself in a bibliography. These additions are not serious in amount, and can hardly give their author title to claiming collection and arrangement of the whole. What he has done in addition is to permit numerous and gross misprints that do not exist in Mr. Deby's work. As an example of slavish copying, nothing better could be cited than a reference to Günther Beck's Geschichte des Wiener Herbariums, where in Mr. Deby's work the word "wichtigeren" is printed with a defective "h"

resembling "n." In Mr. Mills' work it duly appears "wicntigeren.' It is a trifle, but it exhibits the method of book-production in this case. It would be easy to cite stupid mistakes from the bibliographical point of view, but where so-called printer's errors, which are merely an author's carelessness, abound, this would be a waste of criticism. We are prepared to admit or to confess voluntarily that this bringing together of material may be of use, and will probably be of use, but it has been done with carelessness, and without merit. G. M.

Bot. Centralblatt. (Nos. 31, 32). St. J. Golinski, Zur Entwickelungsgeschichte des Andrœceums und des Gynæceums der Gräser.'-(No. 33). K. Meinshausen, Ueber einige kritische und neue Carex-Arten der Flora Russlands' (C. laviculmis, C. chloroleuca, C. mandshurica, spp. nn.). (No. 34). P. Kunth, Die Blüteneinrichtung von Primula acaulis.'-(No. 35). F. v. Herder, Die in St. Petersburg befindlichen Herbarien und botanischen Museen.'

C.

Botanical Gazette (July 15). D. M. Mottier, On the embryosac and embryo of Senecio aureus' (3 plates). - P. Dietel, New species of Uredinea and Ustilaginea.' — G. F. Atkinson, Biology of the organism causing leguminous tubercles' (4 plates). Robertson, Flowers and Insects.' (Aug. 10). J. S. Wright, Cell union in herbaceous grafting' (2 plates). L. N. Johnson, Zoospores of Draparnaldia' (1 plate). J. M. Coulter & E. M. Fisher, New and noteworthy N. American plants.'-A. F. Woods, 'Recent investigations on evaporation of water from plants.'

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Bot. Magazine (Tokio).-(July 10). R. Yatabe, Trillium Tschonoskii Maxim. (1 plate).

Bull. de l'Herbier Boissier (No. 6).-F. Prévost-Ritter, Anemone alpina & A. sulphurea' (1 plate).-H. Solereder, Zur anatomischen Charakterisk und zur Systematik der Rubiaceen.'-E. Hutt, Neue Arten der Gattung Delphinium' (4 plates).-(No. 7). E. de Wildeman, 'Le Genre Pleurococcus' (P. nimbatus, sp. n.: 1 plate).-R. Chodat & G. Balicka, Sur la Structure des Tremandracées.' R. Chodat, Polygalaceae novæ.' R. Chodat & G. Hochrentiner, Le Genre Comesperma. C. Roulet, 'Du genre Thunbergia.' J. Briquet, Du genre Galeopsis.' J. Weyland, Zur anatomischen Charakteristik der Galegeen.'

6

Bull. Soc. Bot. France (xl. Comptes rendus, 2).. Boulay, De la marche à suivre dans l'étude des Rubus.' E. Mer, 'Le Balai de Sorcière du Sapin.'-Id., ‘Le brunissement des feuilles de Sapin.'-'E. Gain, Sur la matière colorante des tubercules.'-H. Coupin, Sur les variations du pouvoir absorbant des graines.'P. Duchartre, Sur les aiguillons du Rosa sericea.'— —. Barratte, 'Les Doronicum scorpioides & Linum austriacum existent-ils en Algérie?'-L. Mangin, 'Sur l'assise à mucilage de la graine de Lin.'