96 M. Fries on the Genus Syngnathus. 



properly referred to O. antiquorum of Linnaeus and to Anonis 

 legitima antiquorum of Tournefort, nor have I any reason to 

 doubt its being the Ononis vel Anonis of Pliny. 



Reichenbach refers our O. arvensis to O. repens, Linn. : this 

 may admit of some doubt, as the specimen marked repens and 

 one from the Upsal Garden marked both arvensis and spinosa, 

 are by no means so convincing as that of O. antiquorum ; yet 

 I think it safe to remain as we are, considering the usual and 

 healthy state of O. arvensis to be 0. spinosa and mitis of the 

 c Species Plantarum/ and O. arvensis of the <Sy sterna Naturae 5 ; 

 when in age the ends of the shoots appear naked, it becomes 

 we suppose 0. spinosa /3 spinosa, Sp. PI., and when buried in 

 sea sands, O. repens, Sp. PI. and Sys. Nat., and we adopt the 

 name of arvensis after Linnaeus himself, who wisely changed it 

 from spinosa to arvensis in his twelfth edition of the Systema. 

 I cannot perceive sufficient reason for imagining that Linnaeus 

 included O. hircina, Jacq., in his 0. spinosa mitis. 



It is much to be regretted that in the last edition of the 

 British Flora no notice is taken of 0. antiquorum ; the syno- 

 nym of Engl. Bot. Supp. t. 2658. is referred to in such a manner 

 as to imply that the same thing has been twice described and 

 figured; the two plants are not even marked as varieties, 

 though the difference is very striking to those who have seen 

 them in their native places of growth : but as my present ob- 

 ject is not to point out the distinction, but to check an un- 

 founded report, I will only add, if further testimony be re- 

 quired, that Professor Don was present when I examined the 

 Linnaean specimen, and his opinion coincided entirely with 

 mine. 

 4th September, 1838. 



XII. — On the Genus Syngnathus. By B. Fr. Fries*. 



The discovery of the remarkable peculiarity existing in the 

 sexes, by which the males are not only destined as protectors 

 of the eggs and of the birth, but are also for this purpose en- 

 dowed with a peculiar organ in which the eggs are deposited, 



* From the German translation by Dr. Gans of Stockholm, in Wiegmann's 

 Archiv, Part III. 1838. 



