Mr. C. C. Babington on Arctium. 351 



May I be permitted to add that if any naturalist, under whose 

 eye this notice may fall, possesses, or should at any future time 

 possess, a living specimen of this Madrepore, I should esteem it 

 a particular favour to be allowed an opportunity of figuring it 

 in my ' Actinologia Britannica/ 



I am, Gentlemen, 



Yours respectfully, 



P. H. Gosse. 

 Sandhurst, Torquay, Oct. 20, 1858. 



XXXVII. — On Arctium. By Charles C. Babington, M.A., 



F.R.S. &c. 



At the Meeting of German Naturalists in 1857, Herr Can- 

 didat Nitzchke made a communication concerning the genus 

 Lappa of Tournefort ; and as he takes especial notice of my 

 paper upon Arctium (A. N. H. ser. 2. xvii. 369), some reference 

 to it seems desirable. He informs us that L. major, L. minor, 

 and L. tomentosa are usually distinguished in Germany, and also 

 that the L. intermedia of Lange has been observed several times, 

 and does not seem to be scarce in Silesia. He arrives at the 

 opinion that the three first-named are true species, but that 

 there are frequent hybrids between them, such as L, minor- 

 tomentosa, corresponding with my A. pubens, and L. major- 

 minor, synonymous with Lange's A. intermedium. He gives no 

 proof of the fact, except that the plants are often found in each 

 other's company. Unfortunately there is a tendency amongst 

 German botanists to declare everything a hybrid which is of 

 difficult determination and nearly allied to other species. Agree- 

 ing with Fries, and with the great body of zoologists, in thinking 

 that plants and animals very rarely hybridize in a wild state, I 

 am not prepared to accept M. Nitzchke' s view concerning the 

 Arctia. It is not a mere statement of opinion which will deter- 

 mine such a question. He allows that his supposed hybrids 

 produce seed which is apparently perfect. Let these seeds be 

 sown and the results remarked for a few years. If they are 

 fertile hybrids, I believe that the progeny will gradually revert 

 towards one of the parent species until they become undistin- 

 guishable from it. 



M. Nitzchke remarks that " these questionable species appear 

 but seldom, and isolated, as is generally the case with hybrid 

 plants." Such is probably their condition in Germany, and may 

 be the fact with A. intermedium in Britain ; but certainly this 

 does not describe the mode of occurrence of A. pubens in Ireland. 

 Until the summer of 1858, I should have been unable to state 



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