384 Viola imberbis Leighton. 



VIII. 299, 300. 329, 330. 413.) Does each Sex of the Cuckoo 

 utter both of them ? — The evidence adduced by Mr. Blyth, 

 in p. 329, 330., is almost positively equivalent to the answer, 

 yes. Mr. White's evidence (p. 382.) is equivalent to the 

 positive answer, yes. In a quotation by S. D. W. from a 

 communication by Mr. Sheppard, published in the Liunaan 

 Society's Transactions, presented in p. 413. of our present 

 Number, Mr. Sheppard's opinion appears to have been, that it 

 is the male cuckoo that utters the more usual cry of " cuckoo " 

 (or " cu-coo," as S. D. W. would rather it should be written : 

 see p. 256. note *), and that it is the female cuckoo that utters 

 that less usual note, which Mr. Shepherd has stated " resem- 

 bles that of the common gallinule ; " which H. N. has 

 described, in IV. 270., as " a curious chatter like [that of] 

 the blackbird, but much louder and stronger ; " which Mr. 

 Main has described, in IV. 416., the foot note, as " a loud 

 liquid, guttural, quickly shaken note, somewhere about A in 

 alt; " which Mr. Blyth has designated, in VII. 348., as " the 

 full melodious note, which the cuckoo often utters on the 

 wing," as he has since taught, in VIII. 329., that he had 

 implied the note we speak of by the words of his we have 

 cited, and where he has additionally stated that " it may be 

 expressed, as nearly as writing can do it, by the monosyllable 

 cid or cnil, repeated several times in quick and continuous 

 succession."] 



Plants. — [Viola imberbis Leighton (277 — 279.) : Dr. 

 Lindley' s Opi?iio?i upon. — The dried specimens of this form of 

 Fiola, which Mr. Leighton had committed (p. 278.) to us for 

 distributing to botanists, we imparted to Dr. Lindley; Dr. 

 Johnston, Berwick upon Tweed; Win. Christy, jun., Esq., 

 Clapham Road ; and Mr. G. Francis, 55. Great Prescott Street. 

 Dr. Lindley has since contributed the following remarks upon 

 the affinities and characteristics of the kind]: — Mr.Leighton's 

 JTiola imberbis is the Fiola suavis ; first distinguished from V. 

 odorata by Marshall von Bieberstein, who found it common 

 in the orchards of the Ukraine. It is described as having the 

 petals white only towards their base ; but my authentic spe- 

 cimens, from groves and bushy places near Odessa, are the 

 same as Mr. Leighton's plant. Reichenbach admits V. suavis 

 into the flora of the southern provinces of the Austrian empire. 

 I cannot doubt that the sweet-scented V. hirta of the French 

 is the same thing ; as V. epipsila of Ledebour undoubtedly is. 

 What claims the plant may have to the rank of a species, it will 

 be for experiment to determine. For my own part, I doubt 

 greatly whether the pubescence of the petals ought to sepa- 

 rate plants so extremely similar as this and V. odorata ; even 



