1852] BOTANICAL CORRESPONDENCE. 319- 



and well-drained soil, and spread very considerably by the roots, — 

 far more so than E. Idaeus does. We have many of the others 

 growing well from seeds, and hope that most of them will flower 

 in the next summer. E. pyrarnidalis did so in a very characteristic 

 way last summer. Should you desire to have any of them, the 

 Curator would probably be able to let you have them another 

 season. And now let me also ask for something. Several years 

 since you sent me seedlings of Thlaspi alpestre and T. virens. They 

 did not do well, although they flowered, but the seed from them has 

 not come up, and the original plants perished. Could you send me 

 seeds of them, as I wish greatly to have them in the Garden 1 I 

 hope that you do not adopt the changes of name proposed for the 

 ferns by Mr. Newman, I think them unnecessary, as far as I am at 

 present informed. I have a specimen of the Polypodium alpestre 

 gathered by Mr. Watson on Ben Alder, and given to me by him 

 as a state of Athyrium filix-femina. I passed it over as perhaps that 

 plant, but imperfect and undeterminable. It is however quite 

 distinct, Mr. Watson has it from one or two other places in 

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



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



St. John's College, Cambridge, 3Iay 8, 1852. 



Dear Balfour, — I shall send off in a very few days the parcel for 

 you, containing the specimens of JSleocharis and Scirpus, and the 

 Hieracium, which you kindly sent for my inspection in the past 

 winter. I have already written to you on the subject of them, 

 and so need not now repeat what has been already communicated. 

 I hope that Mr. Kirk will find the Hieracium again, and have the 

 liberality to furnish me with a specimen, as I wish that my herbarium 

 should include all these doubtfully-indigenous plants, as well as the 

 true natives. I enclose in the parcel the short paper that I have 

 written for the Botanical Society upon the new Eleocharis. May I 

 express a hope that some of your zealous botanists will visit Tayin- 

 loan and refind the plant, for it is far from being satisfactory that a 

 supposed new species should rest upon three bits of one (?) specimen. 

 Your " Class Book " seems to be nicely done, i.e. as far as I can 

 judge by only opening the pages here and there. Henslow uses it 

 in his lectures, but says that he has detected a few blunders. It 

 would indeed be wonderful if he could not. I fear that you may 

 think that I have done wrong in breaking the specimen of Eleocharis 

 JFaisoni, but must assure you that what I have retained has only 

 one spike and a single detached fruit, so that what I return is by 

 far the better half. I have also put into the parcel a few specimens 

 that I think may be acceptable to you. — Yours very truly, Charles 

 C. Babington. 



