A Pocket Guide to British Ferns. By Marian S. Ridley.
(Bogue.) —The point in which this account differs from other popular manuals on the same subject lies in the prominence given to tabular descriptions of each species, such descriptions being intended to serve the purpose of drawings or woodcuts. The present reviewer, knowing every British fern by memory, and having cultivated and figured them all, is yet unable to speak with very high commendation of this method of descriptive tables. They cannot compete with dia- grammatic and pictorial illustrations as a means of identifying the different kinds. But if we cannot have both descriptions and illus- trations, the former will be acknowledged to possess several advan- tages over the latter ; they at least may serve as a foundation for sound knowledge of generic and specific differences. Perhaps, in the case of a beginner who is working with this " pocket guide," the best plan would be to commence by taking one species of each genus, and comparing the tabular description with an actual plant. Living plants of all the more common species may be bought for a few pence, or found in almost any part of the country. But named plants of all the species may be seen and -dallied at the Royal Gardens at Kew. When once the living plant has been compared with the description, and a few sketches and outlines of characteristic features have been pencilled by the side of the latter, a real acquaintance with such differences as are usually called specific will have been acquired, but generic differences should first have been mastered. Although we may not be able to endorse in every particular the classificatory and other scientific features of the little book before us, yet in the matter of what may be called practical details, derived from close observation, this pocket guide must be pronounced accurate and clever. We must add that the get- up of the book (external and internal) is admirable.
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