250 Distinctions between the Linrwean Genera 



An attentive inspection and comparison of plates 862, 863, 

 and 864?. of English Botany will much elucidate the above 

 communication ; in the absence of dried specimens, which are 

 better, or living ones, which are better still, of the plants 

 there depicted : they are these : — On plate 862. Potentilla 

 reptans L., where the back view of a flower merits attention ; 

 on plate 863., Tormentilla officinalis Smith; and on plate 

 864., Tormentilla reptans L. 



The question proposed is: — Are not the tormentils rather 

 potentillas usually possessed of only four fifths of their sepals 

 and petals ? or, in other words, should the genus Tor- 

 mentilla be preserved, or abolished and its species transferred 

 to the genus Potentilla? Contributive to the answering of 

 this question, Mr. Babington has provided the amplest list of 

 instances of the condition of the flowers of Tormentilla 

 officinalis Smith ever before published ; and worthy of admir- 

 ation is the zeal which led him to collect so many, and the 

 skill with which he has arranged and adapted them in 

 relevance of the question. Besides the value of these in- 

 stances in this relation, they, and those of the floral variations 

 of Paris quadrifolia L., communicated by Professor Henslow 

 (Vol. V. p. 429. 755.), have a universal and permanent value 

 in their subservience to arguments on every analogous con- 

 dition of other plants and genera. Farther than this, we 

 think the facts themselves, extensively detailed though they 

 be, very interesting; for who that loves plants can possibly 

 be wearied with the minutest incident in the, as it were, 

 personal biography of any one of them. Dilated premises 

 too, enable the student to canvass and analyse the conclusions 

 deduced, and, if dissatisfied with them, to draw others for him- 

 self. We neither presume nor profess to place ourselves in 

 this latter relation to Mr. Babington's conclusion, but beg to 

 attach some quotations and remarks which more or less 

 oppose it, or otherwise relate to it. Smith, in his English 

 Flora, vol. ii. p. 426., contends for the due distinctness of the 

 genus Tormentilla from the genus Potentilla, and presents a 

 clearly drawn view of, and most pertinent remarks on, their 

 relations : these merit the attention of the reader. We select 

 two remarks : — First, " The distinction between Tormen- 

 tilla and Potentilla certainly depends upon number ; but the 

 difference is obvious, and as constant as in any other similar 

 instance, of. which there are several universally adopted." 

 (p. 426.) Secondly, in the detailed descriptions of Tormen- 

 tilla officinalis (in p. 427.) : — " The flowers have, very rarely 

 indeed, 5 petals, and consequently 10 segments [sepals], to 

 the calyx ; an accident not uncommon in several [species of] 



