Welsh Journals

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Then there is a general key to all the species given in the book, in the flowering stage. There are keys for the identification of the commoner species from their seeds and from specimens lack- ing flowers (based on vegetative characters only). These are per- haps the most remarkable part of the book and are truly an achieve- ment. The author's use of such characters as sticky sheaths in Dactylis glomerata, leaves with cross-veins in Glyceria, and short leaves in Poa compressa makes one realize how much is overlooked in approaching grasses in the orthodox manner. Finally, there are keys to cultivated cereals and lawn grasses. Classification and nomenclature are similar to those in Clap- ham, Tutin and Warburg's Flora. Agropyron is not split up into Roegneria and Elystrigia as it is by some botanists these days. Curiously Anisantha, Zerna and Serrafalcus are again lumped together as Bromus in spite of the fact that they seem distinct groups this may be due to a problem of nomenclature rather than classification. Festuca tenuifolia, Poa angustifolia .and P. subcaerulea are species again (not mere sub-species), with full descriptions and illustrations, P. subcaerulea now including P. irrigata. Koeleria albescens is considered only an unimportant variant of K. gracilis. Desmazeria of C.T. and W.'s Flora is here Catapodium. The only fault I could find is on p. 36, in the general key, where Bromus ramosus is included in the group whose leaf sheaths are without auricles. The auricles are very obvious in B. ramosus, as will be seen in the illustration on p. 50, and consequently it runs down in the key to Festuca gigantea. It should be added that it is in its correct place in the key based on vegetative characters, on p. 352. Puccinellia pseudodistans seems rather neglected, as usual and some more information about Aira multiculmis, with an illustration, would have been welcome. But these are only matters of personal taste. The author evidently changed his mind about the treatment of Agropyron Donianum, for he describes it briefly under A. caninum on p. 75 and in full, with an illustration, on pp. 73-4. At a time when botanical books rarely cost less than a guinea, 3s. 6d. for what is really a monograph is an extraordinarily low price. This book deserves the highest praise. It is a must" for everyone who is interested in grasses. P.M.B. Swifts IN A TOWER by DAVID LACK. Methuen. London. 1956. 21s. According to a sketch-map on page 103 of this very readable monograph the swift is only an occasional breeder in far western regions of the British Isles, as Anglesey, Cornwall, S. W. Ireland and the Hebrides. West Wales is marked as having as full a complement of breeding swifts as elsewhere, but on the whole and especially along the coast in our experience swifts are not as plentiful