274 CHARLES CARDALE BABINGTON. [1835 



that he has sent a paper to " Loudon's Magazine of Natural History "' 

 upon his Viola imherbis, giving its resemblances to, and differences, 

 from, V. odorata and hirta, and hopes that you will refer to that when 

 published for any notice which you may wish to take of it in your 

 third edition. Be sure that you give him the credit for it, and not 

 me. He also finds by cultivation that V. lactea of our Cambridge 

 fens changes into V. caninci. May not all these Violas which do not 

 differ, except in the form of the leaves or some such variable 

 characters, turn out to be but varieties of one or two species ? Hen- 

 slow and I are inclined to that opinion. I find a Leontodon on the 

 Gogmagog Hills (chalk), and on sand hills near Cley, Norfolk, which 

 appears as deserving of specific distinction as L. palustre. Its specific 

 character might be : " Outer scales of involucre erect, not reflexed, 

 leaves deeply runcinate glabrous, florets tubular to about three- 

 quarters of their length — dry barren chalk and sand, flowers in 

 June." This plant has a much more elegant appearance than either 

 of the other species, being more slender in all its parts. It had a 

 few plants of L. Taraxacum mixed with it at Cley, but could be distin- 

 guished from that plant at a distance by its appearance. The Taraxa- 

 cum was variety /3 of Smith, with a strongly recurved calyx. In 

 my plant the calyx hardly becomes recurved, even in bud, the outer 

 scales are lanceolate. This plant agrees better with Taraxacum, 

 levigatum of "Botanical Gazette," than with any other plant that I 

 can find described. What does he mean exactly by "involuc. exter. 

 patuli " 1 It is also very like a specimen of that plant I have from 

 the continent through Unio Itiner., but upon which I cannot now put 

 my hand, having all my things in confusion from moving into new 

 rooms. I will send a specimen by the first opportunity that offers. 

 — Believe me, my dear Sir, yours truly, Charles C. Babington. 



To [Sir] W. J. Hooker. 



St. John's College, Cambridge, Dec, 1835. 



My dear Sir, — A note in the last number of your " Companion 

 to the Botanical Magazine" appears to call for some notice from 

 me, and therefore I trouble you with this letter. At p. 158 you 

 mention a new Heath from Ireland, and propose to call it Mackayii. 

 Now it singularly happens that, on the very day of the publication 

 of that number, I had described it in a paper then read to the Lin- 

 naean Society hy the name of E. hifonnis. Mr. W, MacCalla, of 

 Roundstone, took me to its station, which is the centre of a most 

 singular district in Connemara, which I hope to describe in an early 

 number of "Loudon's Magazine," and shewed it to me as probably 

 a new species. I have examined it with great care, and compared 

 it with the London herbaria, and finding that it does not agree 

 with any described plant, have named it as above, and trust that 

 the Society will publish it in the next part of their " Transactions." 

 My specific character is: "E. foliis quaternis ovatis ciliatis, floribus 



