Abstract
THIS is an interesting book. The usual lists and records of alien plants are not particularly inviting to the botanist generally, and there is no doubt a tendency to look with a tolerant eye upon the labour which is devoted by many workers to the botanical treasures of waste grounds and rubbish heaps. But the present book, like its prototype in Southern France, treats the whole subject on a high plane, and brings out many important general conclusions. The record is founded mainly on the careful field-work of Miss Ida Hayward continued for several years. The main share of the identification and classification of the plants has fallen to Dr. G. Claridge Druce. Dr. Druce is so well known for his intensive studies on the flora of Great Britain that one need only say that this part of the work is in keeping with his high reputation. Not the least interesting section of the book is the introductory part, where a summary of the origin of this adventive flora is given along with a short history of the development of the town of Gala-shiels and its woollen industry. There follows a review of the sources from which Galashiels derives the wool it manufactures into tweeds. Some little space is given to the remarkable survival of the seeds after the very drastic treatment they are subjected to when the wool is passed through some of the preliminary processes. The results obtained of the temperature-resisting power of certain seeds are certainly very remarkable.
The Adventive Flora of Tweedside.
By Ida M. Hayward Dr. George Claridge Druce. Pp. xxxii + 296. (Arbroath: T. Buncle and Co., 1919.)
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The Adventive Flora of Tweedside . Nature 106, 142 (1920). https://doi.org/10.1038/106142a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/106142a0