280 Viola canina, Ranunculus Ficdria, Galium cruciatum. 



the parent plant, all of which have the cordate-acute form of 

 the leaves of V. canina. Sir J. E. Smith (E?ig. Flora,i. 305. ), 

 notwithstanding the statement that V. lactea is so little changed 

 by culture, except in size, appears to have entertained con- 

 siderable scruples in retaining it as a species ; in which doubts 

 he is followed by Dr. Hooker in his British Flora, i. 107. 

 V. lactea does not grow with us, and it would be highly de- 

 sirable if botanists in whose neighbourhoods it occurs would 

 institute a course of experiments to ascertain the question of 

 its being a distinct species, or merely a variety of V. canina. 

 I send specimens of the plants of the V, lactea in both its 

 states. [The leaves of the two compared are, in figure, most 

 notably dissimilar, and as described. Amongst the forms of 

 Fiola allied to V. canina, there are more than one exotic one 

 cultivated in some of the botanic gardens of Britain, under 

 specific names, which are scarcely species ; V, lancifolia Thore 

 is, if we have remembered rightly, one of these. See in p. 249.] 



Viola canina. — I this year met with two or three speci- 

 mens of V. canina, which had the Jour upper petals marked 

 with a hairy central line. 



Ranunculus Ficdria. — In addition to my friend C. C. Ba- 

 bington's tables of the varieties of this plant, in VII. 377., I 

 send the following list of varieties noticed in an examination 

 of 1203 specimens at Shrewsbury, in March and April, 1833, 

 which was inadvertently omitted to be sent to him previously 

 to the publication of his paper. The first column indicates 

 the number of the variety in VII. 377., the fourth the num- 

 ber of specimens observed in each variety. Two new sub- 

 varieties occur in Nos. 10. and 11. 



Galium cruciatum. — On the back of the leaves of Galium 

 cruciatum, immediately below the apex, Ihave observed two 

 small irregular oblong pellucid tubercles, one on each side of 

 the midrib. These, I was at first induced to consider as the 

 eggs of some insect, but a more extended examination has 

 shown me that they are invariably present, and has convinced 



