282 CHARLES CARDALE BABINGTON. [1841 



my most sincere thanks. The specimen is undoubtedly exactly the 

 same as my P. Puiii, and therefore I suppose we must adopt Loise- 

 leur's name, at which I am grieved, for Ray certainly had a far 

 better claim to the plant than M. Robert, having distinguished it 

 150 years since. I have again referred to Loiseleur's character, for 

 he gives no description, and I would defy any person to determine 

 what it was he intended by his plant without authentic specimens. 

 I have seldom seen any work which is less deserving of praise than 

 his "Flora Gallica," for I have scarcely ever found the real character 

 of a plant pointed out by him. I send you a specimen of Echinos- 

 permum Lappula, gathered in August last on the Suffolk coast be- 

 tween Southwold and Walberswick, by my friend, the Rev. Adolphus 

 Holmes, F.L.S. He is of opinion, and so am I (from my remembrance 

 of the place when at Southwold a few years since), that it is truly 

 an aboriginal native in that locality. I at first suspected the pro- 

 bability of ballast having introduced it, but from recent enquiries, 

 am of opinion that that is not the case. — Pray believe me, my dear 

 Sir, very faithfully yours, Charles C. Babington. 



To William Borrer, Esq. 



St. John'« College, Cambridge, Feb. 27, 1841. 

 My dear Sir, — I have just received from Mr. T. Edmondston 

 two specimens of the Ci/nosurus echinahis from Shetland, one of them 

 for you. In asking for one for myself, I also said that if he could 

 spare two, I should be glad of one for you. He states that all the 

 specimens (few in all) were as small as that sent, except one nearly 

 two feet high. In a former letter he stated that no ships are ever 

 known to bring ballast, and to throw it upon Bressa Isle, and that 

 the plants grew in the interior of the island. Bressa is a small 

 island exactly opposite to the town of Lerwick. Mr. Edmondston 

 is a young botanist, the son of a landed proprietor in Unst, where 

 he resides. I trust that you have received two notes, one contain- 

 ing seeds of Cliococca tenuifolia*, and the other an account of Scirpus 

 pufvuhis. I have lately had reason to think that we have two plants 

 in England confounded under the name of Melampyrum arvense, but 

 as I only possess single specimens of them, and have never seen 

 either alive, I am still in some doubt upon the subject. The true 

 M. arvense (Smith) from Costessy, Norfolk, has the " bracteas lanceo- 

 late, pinnatifid, with setaceous segments, and the teeth of the calyx 

 with slender setaceous teeth from an ovate base, the other M. (Sm.) has 

 bracteas ovate, attenuated, pinnatifid, with subulate segments, and 

 the teeth of the calyx lanceolate attenuated ; the corolla also of 

 nearly double the size." I wish that you would look at your 

 specimens, and see what they say. The new (?) plant is from Brom- 

 field, to whom I have written on the subject, and, as he has never 

 seen the true plant, he cannot see the difference, especially as the 



* See C.C.B. in (Lam.) Trans. Linn. Soc. xix (1845) 33, 34. Now Linton selaginoides. 



