64 CHARACTERS OF BRITISH PLANTS. 
disagree with the printed characters assigned to them in 
books, and particularly those facts which bear upon the 
distinctions of tħe more dubious species. If, in doing so, I 
am unavoidably led to express dissent from the views of 
species adopted in the Manual, I would still bear my feeble 
testimony to the care and accuracy with which the characters 
of species are usually given in that work. Possibly, indeed, 
the endeavour to make strong distinctions on paper has in 
some instances frustrated the ultimate object of such distinc- 
tions, by leading the author to describe only the more de- 
cided forms, and to neglect those intermediate links which 
another observer may regard as proofs of specific identity, 
where the author wishes to establish specific distinctness. 
Besides, it is far easier to create than to destroy a mere book 
species, however false in nature. A good observer may 
readily seize upon one or more differences between indivi- 
dual plants, may put these differences into the form of a 
specific character, and may give a new name to one or both 
of these paper species. The name will live in books, at 
least for his time, on account of the trouble of disproving the 
pretended species. A new species may be made out of a 
single specimen, and often has been thus made. To disprovea 
false species, is a more tedious process. It may be neces- 
` sary to seek and examine many intermediate forms, to study 
the plant at different stages of growth, to see it under dif- 
ferent circumstances of soil or situation, to raise it afresh 
from seeds, &c. &c. And if done, all this cannot be told 
briefly like a specific character. 
Fumaria officinalis (Linn.) and F. capreolata (Linn.)—In both 
these species, as likewise in F. micrantha (Lag.), the stem is 
either erect or spreading, or climbing by its cirrhose petioles. 
In both, also, the sepals vary in size; in F. capreolata, 
ranging from one-third to two-thirds the length of the corolla; 
in F. officinalis, from one-fourth to one-half. My most 
puzzling English specimen can be referred to F. officinalis 
only dubiously, on account of the absence of grown fruit. 
It has bracts equalling or exceeding the pedicels, and sepals 
