298 CHARLES CARDALE BABINGTON. [1846 



Leighton says smooth, which led me astray, as 1 have none of the 

 seeds to examine. You speak of our " wealthy University." Private 

 colleges are rich, but the University has no power over their funds, 

 and is very poor. The only modes by which to get the money for 

 our new Garden are : 1st, by taxing all the members of the Univer- 

 sity, and there are difficulties in the way of this, or, 2nd, by private 

 subsci'iption, and this is unjust. There are no public funds to go 

 to. I hope that we shall succeed in the former mode next term. 

 Of course you go to Southampton in September. I hope to be there. 

 Yours very truly, Charles C. Babington. 



If any botanists go to Ben Lawers this year, request them to 

 look to the Eriophorum in the boggy streamlets far up the mountain. 

 Is it a state of E. vaginatum, or new ; or a single-headed form of 

 E. angustifolium of Smith ? My specimens are bad, and I have no 

 roots. 



To William Borrer, Esq. 



St. John's College, Cambridge, June 12, 1846. 



My dear Sir, — The Eev. W. W. Newbould now lives at Blunti- 

 sham, St. Ives, Hunts. He will leave that place at Midsummer, and 

 after September will be curate at Comberton, near Cambridge. I 

 doubt if he has now a specimen of the Banunculus Fetiveri in his 

 possession, as I have two of his (one for myself and one to go back 

 to him). He did not tell me of having any more. He was at the 

 Clerical College at Chichester some years since. I fear that B. Petiveri 

 is only a variety of B. aquatilis, but think B. tripartitus is distinct. I 

 think that I have B. Baiulotii (Godron) from Jersey. It is (?) another 

 form of B. aquatilis. Balfour has just sent me Luzida nivea, which 

 is found in great plenty and undoubtedly wild in a wood near 

 Dunfermline, by Dr. Dewar, of that place. I have told Balfour to 

 go and see it, and investigate its claims as a native. I rejoice that 

 you have taken up the Allia, as you will make out all of them for 

 us. I shall look for your conclusions on my return. I suppose that 

 Smith's A. carinatum must be considered as a variety of A. oleraceum, 

 as is done by Fries, etc. If you have got a flat-leaved state of 

 A. vineale it will go far to prove that Fries is correct in supposing 

 that it is the true A. arommim of Linnaeus. What think you of 

 the white-flowered Myosotis versicolor from damp places ? Its calyx 

 is said to be much less deeply divided than that of the ordinary 

 plant. — Yours very truly, Charles C. Babington. 



To Professor J. H. Balfour, M.D. 



St. John's College, Cambridge, Oct. 26, 1846. 



Dear Balfour, — You have sent me a puzzle. Is it indeed from 

 Yorkshire 1 I have the same plant (and a good drawing by Sowerby) 

 now before me from the coast of Lancashire, where it was found by 



