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THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



Peter Dent, that the name of a definite locality for the plant is 

 given for the first time. After the Latin description copied from 

 the earlier work, as given above, the authors state the place where 

 the specimens were found as "nigh that gate of Gamlmgay Park 

 which is next the town." This appendix of seventeen leaves is 

 not paged, and the statement occurs on the ninth page after the 

 introductory paragraphs. 



The next reference to the plant is by Pierre Magnol." In his 

 small octavo volume, printed at Montpellier, a scarce book, of 

 which few copies exist, it is described under the name of " Alsine 

 verna glabra"; the author being apparently unaware of Kay's 

 previous account of the same plant. Magnol's account is as 

 follows: — " Plantulam inveni circa pratulum luci Gramuntii (in 

 quo copiose crescit gratiola) vere cum flore et seminibus, quae in 

 quibusdam accedit ad Alsinem veniam Liigd. radiculam exilis est, 

 circa quam aliquot foliola angusta, oblonga, glabra oriuntur : cauli- 

 culus uncias tres altus, duobus aut tribus articulis distinctus est, 

 binis foliis articulum amplectentibus : ad secundum, vel tertium 

 articulum cauliculus dividitur in duos vel tres, quorum quilibet 

 florem unicum habet foliolis albis constantera, quibus quatuor folia 

 viridia acuta supposita sunt, succedit loculus oblongus minuto 

 semine plenus." While Ray carefully describes the habit of the 

 plant, the characters of the fiower and fruit are clearly indicated in 

 Magnol's description. Two years later, in Eay's principal work, 

 the description is repeated,! and in an abbreviated form in his 

 subsequent Sijnopsu,\ where, for the first time, Magnol's plant is 

 mentioned and identified with the specimens he had previously 

 described. Ray also adds a note as to the plant being easily 

 overlooked, " parvitate sua, quodque cito evanescat ; foliis fere 

 caryophylleis, flore tetrapetalo, et florendi tempore facile innotescit." 



On p. 1005 of the former work Ray refers to two plants de- 

 scribed by Parkinson (1G40) under " Lychnis." The first of these 

 appears to me to be identical with the common English form of 

 Silene gallica ; of the second, Ray says he knows nothing of its 

 occurrence in England, " huic autem ultimaB nihil a nobis simile 

 in Anglia nee visum, nee auditum." In the third volume of 

 Bubani's remarkable Flora Pyrenna, which has just come to hand, 

 this other plant is queried as possibly identical with Moenchia 

 guateniella ; but as its identity cannot be satisfactorily established, 

 I have not mentioned it at the outset as the earliest reference. 

 Parkinson, in the work cited, § describes it under the name of 

 ''Lychnis tenuifolia altera," and gives it an English name, "the 

 least wild Campion." The same plants are again mentioned fifteen 

 years afterwards by How,|| his uncompromising critic, who writes of 



* Botanicon Monspeliense, p. 14 (1686). 

 j- Historia Plantarum, ii. p. 1025 (1688). 



I Syno2)sis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum, ed. i. p. 145 (1690) ; ed. ii. 

 p. 206 (1696). 



§ Theatntm Botanicum, p. 138, n. 9 (1640). 



II Stirpium Illmtrationes, p. 98 (1655); a book compiled from Lobel's un- 

 published manuscripts. 



