128 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



than the calyx, + 8 mm. Anthers ciliolate, filaments oblanceolate. 

 Style with lower half slightly hairy and a little longer than the 

 anthers. Ovary hairy externally. Capsule not seen. 



H. visciDA Hiern, var. nov. Randii. Suffruticosa ramosissima 

 glandulosa ; petalis quam calyce brevioribus cuneato-oblanceolatis 

 quam iis typi angustioribus. 



Hab. Buluwayo, Dr. B. Frank Band, no. 295. 



Suffruticose, branching copiously, apparently a taller plant than 

 type. Calyx + 5*5 mm. shorter than in the type, segments lanceo- 

 late-acuminate, externally subpilose. Petals much narrower than 

 in the type, ± 4*5 mm. long. Anthers longer than calyx, ciliolate. 

 Capsule distinctly horned. 



BRITISH BOTANY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 

 By W. a. Clarke, F.L.S. 



The above title will, no doubt, be considered an ambitious one, 

 and it seems desirable to explain that it is proposed merely to 

 review, and that very briefly, the literature of the century affecting 

 our native plants, and more especially the phanerogams. The chief 

 cryptogamic works will also be referred to in order of date, but 

 without any attempt at criticism — which, for the best of reasons, 

 must be left to others. 



Before proceeding to our task, it may be well to glance at the 

 position of the British botanist at the end of the eighteenth century, 

 and it will be found to have been by no means an unenviable one. 

 Since the introduction of the Liunean system into the country, 

 about the year 1760, much had been done by enthusiastic workers. 

 We need only recall the names of Hudson, Withering, Lightfoot, 

 Curtis, Sowerby, and Smith, in proof of this statement. Withering's 

 Botanical Arratiyement had gone through three editions, the last 

 (1796) being, for the time, an excellent British Flora. Lightfoot's 

 Flora Scutica (1777) had done much for the northern kingdom, of 

 which previously little botanically had been known. Curtis's Flora 

 Londinensis (1777-98) contained splendid life-sized coloured figures 

 with accurate descriptions of nearly all the flowering plants to be 

 found within twenty miles of London, and a few of the mosses and 

 fungi. The work has retained its value to the present day. 



James Sowerby had, in the same grand style, illustrated the 

 British Fungi then known — about 400 species — and in 1790, 

 together with Sir James Edward Smith, had commenced the 

 well known English Butany. It appeared in monthly parts, each 

 containing three plates — the first three being Cypripedinm Calceolus, 

 Vero7iica spicata, and Erica vagans, each dated *' Nov. 1, 1790." 

 The next part did not appear till Jan. 1, 1791, after which the 

 work progressed with regularity. Up to the end of the century 

 eleven volumes and part of the twelfth (altogether 822 plates) had 

 been published. In 1788 the Linnean Society was established by 



