68 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



Bennett would say " not inflata." " Fumaria imrpurea Pugsley " 

 - — " not imrijurca," says Mr. Pugsley. Sisymbrium hispanicum 

 Jacq., so named by the sender, " will not do for hispanicum," says 

 Mr. Holmes, while Mr. Dunn believes it to be " a form of Brassica 

 clongata." Of course, if the Eeports of the Clubs were to be 

 regarded as unpublished documents for circulation only among 

 the members, the case would be different ; but they are duly pub- 

 lislied and circulated, and thus claim public recognition. Surely 

 also it is carrying the present enthusiasm for authentication to 

 excess when it is considered necessary to submit to a referee so 

 unmistakable a plant as Iberis amara and gravely to print " Yes, 

 E. S. M." after the record — by the way, why is it recorded at all 

 from Princes Eisborough, seeing that it is one of the commonest 

 of plants on the chalk throughout that district ? The note which 

 we quote later as to Lotus corniculatus var. crassifolius exhibits 

 this authenticitis in an acute form : we quote it because it con- 

 firms the view we have more than once expressed as to the desira- 

 bility of reducing the number of " varieties" in our lists, or at any 

 rate of investigating their claims to be so regarded. We are glad 

 to note in the Eeport a consensus towards the discouragement of 

 the invention of new " varieties." We note, however, that the 

 Eeport includes without comment Gnicus acaulis var. caulesceiis — 

 a " state," if ever there was one. 



We proceed as usual to give a few of the more interesting 

 notes : a large number of these, however, relate to critical genera 

 — Viola, Bubus, Bosa, Hieracium, Mentha (the notes throw an 

 interesting light on Mr. Williams's summary dismissal of the 

 genus in his Prodromns), Euphrasia, Ulmus, Betula, Salix, and 

 Carex — and these, except one on Viola, are not included. The 

 names of the authors, indicated by initials in the Eeport, are here 

 printed in full. 



Viola. The Woodwalton Fen violets are at once interesting 

 and puzzling. In addition to the three species, V. stagnina, V. 

 canina b. crass if olia, and V. montana, there exists a series of 

 intermediates or hybrids ; some of these, no doubt, possess charac- 

 ters referable to the three types ; others appear to be crosses 

 between two only of the typical species. In naming these for 

 club distribution I have treated them as natural hybrids between 

 the two species they most nearly approach in, general appearance, 

 and in such characters as seem important. No artificial hybrids 

 have been attempted in this group ; there can be, therefore, no 

 certainty of hybridity, although the fact of artificial hybrids having 

 been successfully made by the late Mr. Beeby and other botanists 

 among the Canina- Biviniana groups inclines one to the proba- 

 bility of hybrid origin. V. montana forms bushes from a foot to 

 one and a half feet high, the habit ascending, as in stagnina, not 

 spreading, as in canina b. crassifolia. The flowers, though not 

 so rounded nor so small as those of stagnina, are of the same pale 

 colour, whereas those of canina are of a bright blue colour ; the 

 corolla spur of stagnina and montana is greenish, that of canina 



