Flora of Dorsetshire Flora Cravoniensis: or, a Flora of the Vicinity of Settle in Craven, Yorkshire

Abstract

ALTHOUGH the boundary-lines of our counties are, as a rule, purely arbitrary, it is probably wise for the compilers of local floras to maintain them rather than to erect new ones of their own. The area of their observations is, at all events, thus rendered perfectly clear and certain. Dorset has long been famous for its palæontological wealth, both vegetable and animal; and we have here a record of its living flora, which, as might be expected from its length of sea-board and its variety of geological formations—lias, oolite, forest marble, Oxford clay, coral rag, Kimmeridge clay, Portland sand, Purbeck, chalk, and Eocene—is a rich one. The value of local floras depends greatly on the dependence that can be placed on the determination of the species by the editor and his collaborateurs; and on this point it seems to us that the present work can be safely trusted, great pains having been taken to establish the authenticity both of the localities and of the nomenclature. The county is divided into seven districts determined by the drainage, and therefore generally separated by high land; and a very good map of the county accompanies the volume. Among the greatest botanical rarities of the county (some of them almost unique) are—Polycarpon telraphyllum, Lotus his—pidus, Simethis bicolor, Leucojum vernum (doubtfully native),Carex clandestina, Scirpus parvulus, and Cynodon dactylon. The flora is confined to flowering plants and vascular cryptogams. Flora of Dorsetshire. By J. C. Mansel-Pleydell. (London: Whittaker and Co. Blandford: W. Shipp.) Flora Cravoniensis: or, a Flora of the Vicinity of Settle in Craven, Yorkshire. By John Windsor. (Manchester: Cave and Sever, 1873. Printed for private circulation.)