290 PHARLES CARDALE BABINGTON. [1842 



from you. I thought that I had informed you that accidental 

 causes had prevented us from going to " Ultima Thule," even after 

 we had gone to Aberdeen for the purpose of going on board of the 

 steam vessel. We therefore went to Ross-shire, intending, if the 

 country looked promising, to endeavour to penetrate into the 

 interior ; as however it did not, we contented ourselves with a 

 careful (but not profitable) examination of Ben Wyvis. We then 

 visited Oban, lona, StafFa, Inverness, and so back to Glasgow. Have 

 you seen Parnell's book on the grasses ? it is well worth having. 

 I have not yet been able to finish selecting the specimens required 

 for my own herbarium from the last summer's collections, and so 

 have not made up a set for you, but shall do so very shortly. I 

 have several plants to send, with which I suspect that you are 

 unacquainted. It appears to me that Hooker has not done wisely 

 in excluding Impatiens fulva from our list, it certainly ought to 

 appear as a naturalized species. I must beg specimens of the 

 following plants that you have found this year : Eriophorum gracile 

 (Woods), Setaria glauca, Fanicum sanguinale*, and Crus gallij, Linaria 

 simplex, and Fumaria calycina. As to the Statice tatarica I know 

 nothing, but think that your conjecture is not at all improbable. I 

 have written by to-day's post to Mr. Notcutt about it. Do you 

 know who he is ? I cannot believe that the true S. tatarica is a 

 native of Britain, I have now a little to say about Myosotis. I 

 am inclined to consider M. rupicola (Sm.) as M. suaveolens (Kit.), and 

 not M. alpestris (Schm.). I have specimens of the latter from 

 Bohemia, and it has blunt lower leaves like those of M. sylvatica, to 

 which I believe it ought to be joined. M. Uthospermifolia (at least 

 the plant of the Italian authors) is also, I think, a form of sylvatica. 

 I conclude therefore that M. svjiveolens is the name to be used. 

 What do you say 1 Also I believe suaveolens is distinguishable from 

 sylvatica by its calyx being attenuated gradually into the peduncle, 

 not rounded off in a hemispherical manner as it appears to be in 

 sylvatica. I have lately been working at the grasses. Elymus 

 europaeus I consider as a Hordeum, as Hudson did, and call it with 

 him, H. sylvaticum. Our Fhleum alpinum is certainly not that of the 

 continental authors, but F. commutatum (Gaud.). In Eriophorum I 

 think that we ought to adopt the name of latifolium for our pubescens, 

 as it is much older, and fortunately, at the same time, better. I 

 have lately received a specimen of Convallaria hifolia (Linn.) from 

 Northumberland, where it appears to be truly wild. Epilohium 

 virgatum, of Fries, turns out to be not an uncommon plant in the 

 deep ditches of peat bogs. It is quite distinct from E. tetragonmn. 

 I am now working hard at the Carices, and after that have very 

 little more to do except Salix, and if you do not help me in that, I 

 will certainly do as I have been advised, namely, "pollard the 

 genus." I do not pretend to know the Willows, and as it is im- 

 possible to obtain specimens, I cannot see how I ever am to know 

 • See Manual — "Digitaria." f See Manual — " Echinochloa." 



