NOTES ON CRASSULA. 477 



dry and relatively low station (Vuslau in Nieder-Oesterr.). Fig. 14-17, 

 Bracts from a specimen from the northern part of the area of distribution 

 (Gotland). Fig. 18-21, Bracts of a specimen from the subalpine region 

 (Baumgartner Haus am Schneeberg in Nieder-Oesterr.), passing into 

 V. nivalis. Fig. 22-25, Bracts of v. nivalis, from an original specimen. 

 Fig. 26-28, Bracts of an abnormal specimen (Rauriserthal). (From Wettst. 

 Mon.) 



NOTES ON CRASSULA. 

 By James Britten, F.L.S., and Edmund G. Baker, F.L.S. 



I. — Species described by Thunberg in Nova Acta, 1778. 



The revision of the older specimens of the Crassulacea in the 

 National Herbarium has brought to light certain details concerning 

 them which may as well be put upon record. Many of these speci- 

 mens bear an intimate relation to the species described by Thunberg 

 in an important paper publisbed in 1778 in the Nova Acta Acad. 

 Cas. Leopuldijio-CarolincE, vi. 328-341, entitled "Crassulae Generis 

 xxviii. Novas Species in Capite bonse spei detectas et descriptas." 

 This paper seems to have been overlooked by almost all recent 

 writers, who have cited most of the species contained in it as from 

 the Supplementwn Plantarum of the younger Linnaeus. This is not 

 to be wondered at, for Thunberg's name in the Supplementum is 

 placed at the end of the much-abridged description of each species, 

 and is thus not recognized as being also the authority of the specific 

 names. Much of the obscurity that attaches to many of the species 

 is due to the brevity of Linnseus's diagnoses, and disappears when 

 Thunberg's fuller descriptions are consulted. 



Mr. Jackson, in the Index Kewensis, follows the ordinary course 

 of attributing these species of Thunberg to later works of the same 

 author, or, in most cases, to Linn. fil. This it is difficult to under- 

 stand, because in two instances the paper in the Nova Acta is cited, 

 showing that Mr. Jackson was aware of its existence. Harvey 

 quotes the species from various places — the Supplementum, Thun- 

 berg's Flora Capensis, or Alton's Hortus Kewensis; many he fails to 

 identify. Yet as Thunberg's paper was printed in (if not before) 

 1778, and the Supplementum dates from 1781, it is manifest that the 

 names stand on the authority of the former. 



The importance of the Museum specimens is twofold. In the 

 first place, many of the Herbarium sheets are written up by Dry- 

 ander with Thunberg's names, and references to his descriptions 

 in the Nova Acta ; and Dryander had a share in working out the 

 Crassulacea for the Hortus Kewensis. But, in addition to the dried 

 plants, we have an excellent series in spirits from Kew Gardens, 

 and these are labelled by Dryander with a reference to the 

 number of each in the Hortus Kewensis, for which they are abso- 

 lutely typical ; the novelties published in that work will be dealt 

 with later. Secondly, the dried specimens were sent to Banks and 

 the living ones to Kew in 1771 by Francis Masson, who in that 



