BOTANICAL CORRESPONDENCE. 



To [Sir] W. J. Hooker. 



St. John's College, Cambridge, Nov. 2ith, 1834. 



Dear Sir, — Henslow telling me that he will have an opportunity 

 of sending this to you, free of expense, I immediately answer your 

 letter of Nov. 13th. I accidentally omitted to put Thesium alpinum 

 into the packet for you, and having left it at Bath, cannot now send 

 it to you, nor shall be able for some months to come. I trust, 

 therefore, that you will take no notice of it in your third edition, 

 particularly as it is probably a variety of T. linophjllum. I trust 

 that you will insert some such paragraph as the following in your 

 book under Euphorbia CJiaracias : " Mr. Babington informs me that 

 his relative, the Rev. T. Gisborne, Prebendary of Durham, an ardent 

 botanist, has lived more than forty years in Needwood Forest, and 

 having searched carefully for this plant, both there and at the locality 

 mentioned by Hudson, is fully convinced that its introduction into 

 the 'British Flora' originated in a mistake." I never intended that 

 you should suppose that I put my new locality for Paeonia forward 

 as a good indigenous station, but only mentioned it as a curious 

 fact, particularly as it is not the species cultivated in gardens in that 

 part of the country. I am sorry that my careless writing should 

 have given you any trouble, but for Carez Hedwigii read Chara 

 Hedwigii. This rests upon the authority of Mr. Borrer, who 

 gathered it with me. For Festuca villosa read Festuca hirsuta, 

 probably, as you say, a variety of Festuca ovina. If, as you say, 

 you wish to know more about the Viola imherhis MSS., you must 

 apply, as I think I said before, to my friend, W. A. Leighton, of 

 Shrewsbury, who found it, and would be happy to send you 

 specimens of it. He knows that I have recommended you to 

 apply to him, and will, I doubt not, be happy to give you an 

 opportunity of publishing it in your "British Flora," or "Journal 

 of Botany." I am much obliged to you for sending my packet 

 to Edinburgh, and also for your promise of some plants. Anything 

 will reach me if it is sent through Henslow when he may be 

 receiving anything from you. You have no doubt seen the figure 

 of my Euphorbia in Sowerby's last number of the Supplement. 

 Don, I see, has named it there E. procera, but I doubt not your 

 name villosa is the more correct. It, however, makes it necessary 

 to give it a very careful examination before putting it into print. 

 I hope you will quote my " Bath Flora " for it, on account of its 

 giving the exact localities, and the names of the gentlemen who 

 called my attention to it as a new species. I have this morning 

 (Nov, 25th) received a letter from my friend Leighton, who says 



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