27(3 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



Fl. Boem. p. 7 (1793). But Schmidt's V. Touniefortii, although 

 he quotes V. caule repente etc. Vill. and V. mas repens pyrenaica 

 etc. Tourn., is a plant of the Bohemian ranges, probably different 

 from Y. AUionii var. Tournefortii Vill., though identical with 

 V. officinalis as suspected by Schmidt himself and determined by 

 Celakovsky in Fl. Bohm. p. 326. 



There also exists an earlier V. Buxhaumii, of F. W. Schmidt in 

 Mayer's Samml. Phys. Aufs. i. p. 187 (1791), wrongly referred by 

 Ind. Kew. to V. pectinata. As Lehmann has shown, p. 478, this is 

 really V. hederifoUa L. Thus if Gmelin's name had to be rejected 

 only on account of a prior V. Touniefortii, Tenore's should be set 

 aside with equal justice by reason of the V. Buxhaumii F. W. 

 Schmidt, unless it can be proved that between 1791 and 1811 some 

 author had deliberately and finally reduced Schmidt's name to a 

 synonym or variety of some still earlier species. It is for this reason 

 that the American botanists have set u]) the name of V. hyzantina. 



One word about V. hospita M. & K. These authors set up that 

 name to include as one species with two varieties both V. Buxhaumii 

 and V.Jiliformis. Of course the German form Avhich they took for 

 Jiliformis is not that species, but a variation of Buxhaumii. Koch 

 in the first edition of tlie Synopsis, p. 530 (1838), admits the mistake 

 and adopts Tenore's name. 



It is a pity that Smith did not assign specific rank to his 

 V. agrestis var. hyzantina, which is indisputabh' V. Buxhaumii, for 

 then we should have had an earlier name than Poiret's free from any 

 obscurity. Of course the rules of priority make it impossible, except 

 for American botanists, to accept V. hyzantina Britton Stern. & 

 Pogg. The identity of V. areolata Colenso with V. Buxhaumii 

 has been recognised by Cheeseman, Man. N. Z. Fl. p. 1082 (1896), 

 and confirmed by Lehmann. 



THE BOTANY OF BUENHAM BEECHES. 



Br J. G. Bakee, F.R.S., F.L.S. 



BuRXHAM Beeches is the name given to 374 acres of wild forest 

 land in the south of Buckinghamshire. It formerh^ belonged to the 

 Grenville family, whose seat was at Dropmore two miles distant, but 

 it has been bought by the Corporation of London for the benefit of 

 the public. About half the area is woodland and the other half 

 common, but they pass into one another gradually. The soil is sandy 

 and gravelly. There are three pools much overgrown by vegetation 

 and a small amount of bog. The flora is not a large one, and there is 

 not much range in situation and it is probable that nine plants — Beech, 

 Birch, Oak, Holly, Bracken, Ling, Bell Heather and two grasses 

 Deschampsia Jlexuosa and Molinia ccerulea — occupy quite three 

 quarters of the whole area. I liave marked with a star the dominant 

 species, and with a dagger those that only grow in the bordering 

 hedges, hedgebanks and roadsides, and not in the depths of the forest. 

 The list was made late in July and early in August and no doubt 



