197 



CHAPTER OF CRITICISM. 



Reply to Mr. Hall's Queries respecting certain Plants. 

 To the Editor of the Naturalist. 



Dear Sir, — In answer to the queries of T. B. Hall, Vol. III., p. 26, none of 

 the four plants mentioned are in Loudon's Hortus Britannicus. I have Malope 

 grandiflora, but with no other name. As for Nigella Romana, I have it also. 

 I think it is Nigella damacena, but am not sure. It is figured in one of the 

 early volumes of Curtis's Botanical Magazine. Of the other plants alluded to 

 by your correspondent I know nothing. 



Mr. Hall must not place implicit reliance on Loudon, as I find his list of 

 Opuntice very incorrect. Should this meet his eye, I suppose I shall bring upon 

 myself the vengeance of the colossal book-maker, but " that peril rests upon my 

 single head." 



T. K. Short. 



Martin Hall, Feb. 1, 1838. 



£In books of such " colossal" dimensions as those of Mr. Loudon, it is scarcely 

 surprising that numerous errors should occur, notwithstanding all the care and 

 labour that may have been bestowed on the productions. The fact of a book's 

 being compiled is certainly not enough to damn it, and Mr. Loudon's works 

 have evidently been printed on the " high -pressure" principle. Botanists and 

 naturalists generally are, beyond all question, deeply indebted to Mr. L. for his 

 unremitting labours for the advancement and diffusion of Natural History : but, 

 even supposing this were not the case, the candid and impartial spirit in which 

 he is at all times ready to attend to notices of his errors — whether supposed or 

 actual — is alike deserving praise and imitation. — Ed.] 



On Mr. Lankester's Remarks respecting Christmas-Day, 1837. 



To the Editor of the Naturalist. 



Bewsey House, Feb. 3, 1838. 

 My dear Sir, — Mr. Lankester seems to have fallen into an error, at p. 108, 

 respecting the temperature on Christmas- day. The thermometer here was no 

 higher than 52°, and this, considering the time of year, manifested a remarkable 

 degree of warmth. Mr. Watson, in his Geographical Distribution of Plants, 

 has given several tables, illustrative of the distribution of heat in Britain, at 

 various periods of the year. From these it appears that at Manchester the average 



