Gardens swarm witli specific names all belonging to little 

 varieties, wliich those who judge of the Vegetable Kingdom 

 by its appearance in the masquerade warehouse of a gar- 

 dener, or who are not aware that a difference and a distinc- 

 tion must not be confounded, actually believe to be so many 

 natural spocies. To illustrate such variations by separate 

 plates, would be a sad waste of time and paper, I shall 

 therefore only figure hereafter such, belonging to this species, 

 as are really striking enough to render a mistake about them 

 probable. 



As to D. palmatifidum and D. intermedium of DeCandolle, 

 to the former of which the plant now figured belongs, it 

 does not appear from our learned and excellent friend's own 

 shewing, that they differ in anything more than that the 

 leaves of the first are called truncate at the base, and of the 

 second cordate. But it is in vain that we seek for perma- 

 nent differences between these two forms, and even DeCan- 

 dolle himself refers under his var. a. of D. pahnatifidmn, to 

 the 79th figure in the fourth vol. of Gmelin's Flora Sibirica, 

 which agrees entirely with the character of D. intermedium. 



One of the commonest of all perennials in Botanic 

 Gardens, where it grows six or seven feet high in rich soil, 

 and forms a beautiful object if allowed to spring among 

 bushes which partially support the branches, and prevent 

 their being broken by wind. 



