40 REVIEWS. 



common Solatium tuberosum appears under a score of names ; or, to look 

 nearer home, we ask our botanical readers how many of them can distin- 

 guish the thirty or forty " species" (so called) into which the common 

 Bramble of our hedges has been divided? We ask, has anything been 

 attained, except confusion, by the labours of modern botanists on the 

 Rubus fruticosus of Linnseus ? Formerly every botanist knew, or thought 

 he knew, a bramble when he met it ; but now scarcely two botanists, we 

 suspect, are fully agreed on the nomenclature of the British species ; and, 

 were they to extend their researches to all the countries over which the 

 Rubus fruticosus L. and its kindred are dispersed, the difficulty of determi- 

 nation would be greatly increased. Even in comparing the Brambles of 

 Germany with those of England most puzzling difficulties arise, as is evi- 

 dent from the constant changes of name to which the supposed species are 

 liable. But the same difficulty occurs in attempting to collate the British 

 species, as severally understood by Messrs. Leighton, Bellsalter, Lees, and 

 others, who have most attended to the subject ; as may be seen by the 

 synonyms collected under almost every species admitted into the Manual. 

 We observe that, in the present edition, two have been struck off the list. 

 We wish that Mr. Babington had carried retrenchment still further. Under 

 his sixth section he observes, " The plants contained in the section are far 

 from being determined satisfactorily ;" — a remark which we would venture 

 to extend to the whole six sections. We observe, too, that when a " spe- 

 cies" is exploded, its debris is frequently parcelled out between several 

 other " species" — not greatly adding thereby, we should think, to their 

 stability. Thus we are told " the plants formerly included under the name 

 of R. Babingtonii are now referred respectively to R. scaber, R. pyramid- 

 alis, and R. fusco-ater /3. Colemani." Again : " R. Wahlbergii (Bab. 

 not Arrh.) is now placed partly under R. Corylifolius and partly under 

 R, nemorosus." In our opinion, the fact of such intermediate forms, as 

 these appear to be, occurring between other closely allied forms, ought to 

 prove to the conviction of any one but an enthusiast the worthlessness of 

 the distinctions which separate those that are still retained. 



Among the changes introduced in the present edition we are first struck 

 by the disappearance of Ranunculus aquatilis, and the substitution of six 

 species — R. trichophyllus, R. Drouetii, R. heterophyllus, R. Baudotii, R. 

 Jloribundus, and R. peltatus — in its place. We had supposed that the 

 process of hair-splitting had been already sufficiently exercised on the 

 Batrachian Ranunculi ; but this large addition to their number shows how 

 much may still be done by ingenuity. Other additions to the British list 



