-4-8 The Scottish Naturalist. 



Ammi majus, Echinophora spinoza, Malva horealis, Juncus tenuis, Lyco- 

 podium complanatum, and Botrychium rutaceum (if the latter be the curious 

 plant, 1810, B. lanceolatum Angstrom), are transferred in the eighth edition ; 

 so that, either by new discoveries, or by judicious splitting, the list of British 

 plants has been increased by about IOO species ; but this number includes several 

 :hybrids which would much better come under the respective species i.c, 

 Rumices hybridi, Primula hybrida, Cnici hybridi, Verbasca hybrida. 



When it comes to the question of what varieties should be included in our 

 British lists, there must be great diversity of opinion. Probably Mr. Han- 

 bury has fairly met the wants of British botanists. Still, if such forms as Mr. 

 Melvill's, under Silene rosea, be admitted (and it is only fair to say that Mr. Mel- 

 vill himself states that they were scarcely varieties), there must be a great many 

 i far more worthy of varietal rank rejected. 



Scotch botanists will look in vain in the Catalogue for such a well-established 

 plant as Lupinus perennis, frequent as it is near Beauly, and along the Dee, 

 Tay, &c. Oxford botanists will see no trace of Aster paniculatus and A. Novi 

 Belgii, which are as well naturalised there as is A. salignus in Cambridgeshire. 

 *Senecio crassifolius also should be included, and so might Mimulus guttatus 

 D.C., naturalised in the Howe of Kintail, and Mentha Requienii in the west of 

 Ireland. Salix hippophaefolia, Thuill., should be admitted, and Luzula 

 albida D.C., var. rubella Hoppe has been found, quite naturalised, by Dr. 

 Arnold Lees near Kidderminster. The variety grandiflorum of Helianthemum 

 Chamcecistus no longer appears to exist ; does not the Ben Bulben plant agree 

 with Continental grandiflorum. 



Besser's glandulose variety of Sagina nodosa, the radiate form of Centaurea 

 nigra, the hirsute variety of Hypopithys, the unspotted variety (kevigatum) of 

 Lamium maculatum, the ovate-leaved Mercurialis perennis, Dr. Buchanan 

 White's pale-flowered Melampyrum sylvaticum, the writer's dark-orange 

 variety (hians) of M. pratense, Roy's two-glumed Juncus triglumis, the mari- 

 time variety (condensatd) of Vicia sylvatica, the alpine form [alpestre Wahl.) 

 of Equisetum arvmse, the naked-stalked form (nudum) of E. palustre . Smith's 

 three-flowered form of Bromus giganteus, Salix Pontederana, Veronica Ana- 

 gallis, var. anagalUformis, Bor., Euphorbia exigua, var. retusa, D.C., 

 Viola mejitita, Jord., &c, might well have been represented. 



The hybrids of Epilobium are unnoticed ; as are also Hypericum jierf or atum 

 + quadratum, Cardamine amara + pratensis, Armeria plantaginea 4- mari- 

 tima, Linaria repens + vidgaris (other than sepium Allm.), Cnicus lanceo- 

 latus + pqlwtris, all which might well find a place in the next edition ; as 

 should also the pale-flowered form of Scrophularia umbrosa, which Mr. Pryor 

 happily connected with its discoverer, an old Oxford botanist, under the name 

 of S. umbrosa, Dum. var. Bobartii ; the mountain form of Carex pilulifera, 

 described in a former number of this journal by Dr. Arnold Lees, is perhaps 

 worthy of note ; and the variety pygmaa of (Ethusa Gynapium, described in 

 Koch's Synopsis, seems entitled to a place. 



G. Claridge Druce. 



