Abstract
MR. MOGGRIDGE has collected in this splendid volume drawings and descriptions of one hundred of the most striking plants of the Mediterranean coast of France. We have no preface to inform us on what principles the selection has been made, nor are they self-evident. But few of the species are new, though some of them are doubtful plants of which precise characters were much wanted. Mr. Moggridge is well known to English botanists as an accurate and careful observer, who has paid great attention to the botany of this district; and he has here produced a volume which is not only a useful contribution to science, but is surpassed by few that we know as a livre de luxe to lie on the drawing-room table. The illustrations are beautifully drawn by the author himself, and are exquisitely coloured. Mr. Moggridge has made himself thoroughly acquainted with the beautiful but difficult species or varieties of Orchis of the south of France related to our Bee-orchis. It is remarkable that, while on our chalk-hills the bee and fly orchis, Ophrys apifera and muscifera, remain perfectly distinct, in the south of Europe they approximate to one another by innumerable intermediate forms, which may all be considered as varieties of Linnæus's O. imectifera. These are here worked out with great care, and we have plates of a number of the most interesting forms.
Contributions to the Flora of Mentone, and to a Winter Flora of the Riviera, including the Coast from Marseilles to Genoa.
By J. Traherne Moggridge. 100 coloured plates. (London: L. Reeve and Co., 1871.)
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B., A. Contributions to the Flora of Mentone, and to a Winter Flora of the Riviera, including the Coast from Marseilles to Genoa . Nature 4, 502 (1871). https://doi.org/10.1038/004502a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/004502a0