Kj8 The Scottish Naturalist. 



drvs), after the season has well set in (say in the end of June or 

 beginning of July), has its growth perceptibly arrested, and the 

 leaves and incipient flowers are seen to be here and there formed 

 into little roundish (or hazel-nut shaped) woolly balls, which are 

 found, when opened, to contain a number of small orange-coloured 

 maggots, reminding one of those found in some of the fungi 

 when decaying. This is quite obvious to any observer ; and yet 

 we do not find it noted in the text-books. Again, we have the 

 leaves of certain plants {e.g.^ Chickweed winter green, Trientalis 

 europcea) subject to the attack of peculiar fungi ; but we have to 

 discover the fact for ourselves, unless we have a teacher beside 

 us directing our attention to it. Once more, the gall-nuts of the 

 oak and the galls on the stem of Lady's Bedstraw (Galium verum) 

 are conspicuous features, and yet neither of them finds a place in 

 the information given by the systematic botanist. 



The same must be said of the economical and other uses of 

 plants, the medicinal properties excepted. Although these are 

 frequently of great value, they are commonly passed by, and 

 others of a less important character given in their stead. 



But a point remains of considerable interest and no slight 



significance. It is time now, I think, to refer in the group-mark 



to the geological aspect of plant-life. It is not, indeed, as yet 



possible to make this a leading character, except in a very limited 



number of cases ; but where geological investigation has succeeded 



in throwing light upon any particular class, sub-class, order, or 



genus (as it has done, for instance, in the case of the Lycopo- 



diacese and the Gymnosperms), the revelation should not be 



ignored. I do not, of course, mean that the systematic botanist 



is to usurp the function of the palaeontologist ; but if his object 



is (as it ought to be) to have in his group-mark mullum in parvo, 



he will never rise to the height of the multum unless he includes 



every relevant item, and bestows special care on those items that 



are specially relevant; and parvo can mean for him nothing else 



than "compressed truth," " terse expression;" it does not stand 



for inadequacy and incompleteness, but for absence of verbosity 



and diffusiveness. 



The Manse, Bourtie, 

 24/// May, 1S84. 



{Concluded.) 



