Abstract
THE publication of a new edition of Bentham's “Handbook of the British Flora “is of considerable importance to students and teachers of botany in Great Britain. There is no published work which better serves as an introduction to the British flora than this, and, though it can be strongly urged that we now need a completely new “Handbook,” approximately on the lines of Schinz and Keller's “Flora der Schweiz,” it is a good thing that the republication of Bentham and Hooker's Handbook has not been undertaken without a revision. Dr. Rendle has most decidedly improved the work, and in many respects has made it more in accordance with modern knowledge and usage. The nomenclature now approximates-after allowing for very considerable differences in species standards-closely to that of Babington's “Manual” (10th edition). The chapter in the introduction on vegetable anatomy and physiology has been omitted, the etymology of generic names and indications of pronunciation have been added, while certain improvements have been made in classification, particularly of the Cryptogams. De-scriptions of the relatively few additions, since the last revision, of “Benthamian species “to the British flora are inserted, and bibliographical references are given to some of the more important recent researches on the critical genera. In spite of these improvements, it seems a pity that the very “large “species standard has been retained even for the use of “beginners and amateurs.” Modern field-botany tends so much towards ecology, and systematists often feel that the determination of species by ecologists is none too critical, that the need of a handbook with complete keys and adapted for field-work, but based on a conception of smaller, and often more actual, species, is greater than ever.
Handbook of the British Flora: a Description of the Flowering Plants and Ferns Indigenous to, or Naturalised in, the British Isles; for the Use of Beginners and Amateurs.
George
Bentham
By. Revised by Sir J. D. Hooker. Seventh edition, revised by Dr. A. B. Rendle. Pp. lxi + 606. (London: L. Reeve and Co., Ltd., 1924.) 12s. net.
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Handbook of the British Flora: a Description of the Flowering Plants and Ferns Indigenous to, or Naturalised in, the British Isles; for the Use of Beginners and Amateurs. Nature 114, 379 (1924). https://doi.org/10.1038/114379b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/114379b0