398 CHARLES CARDALE BABINGTON. [1883^ 



It was very necessary to include the Isle : your book would have 

 been imperfect without it, and Bromfield's " Flora " is not of much 

 use now, and was very badly edited. If he had completed it 

 himself it would have been a very valuable section of a general 

 flora (such as Leighton's is) but now it is an imperfect piece onlj'. 

 I am right glad to learn that you are restored to health again. I 

 fear that nothing ever brings you into this part of the country, so> 

 that we have very little chance of seeing you here. It would give 

 Mrs. Babington and myself very much pleasure to do so. — Believe 

 me to be, very truly yours, Charles C. Babington. 



To Arthur Bennett, Esq. 



Cambridge, July 23, 1883. 



My dear Sir, — Very many thanks. I congratulate you on your 

 discovery of Naias marina in Norfolk. There can be no doubt about 

 the plant. — Yours ever, Charles C, Babington. 



To Frederick Townsend, Esq. 



CADGwrrH, Euan Minor, Cornwall, R.S.O., Sept. 3, 1883. 



Dear Townsend, — Your letter has come to me here, where we 

 arrived on Saturday in a storm of rain and wind. We hope to 

 remain here to the end of the month, and then return home. Your 

 letter has interested me very much, and I do indeed thank you for 

 it. In the list of errata I have not attempted to insert all, but all 

 important ones that have come to my knowledge. Owing to the 

 unavoidable circumstances, I was very much hurried in the printing 

 of this edition, and, so, seldom saw revises ; hence the errata. I 

 have intentionally written Townsendw with two i's>. It is more 

 correct to end in ius than in us. I am glad to find that the plant is 

 so marked, but hardly expect the species to be accepted. I wonder 

 where that and Spartina alterniflaiu came from ? There seems to be a 

 concurrence of opinion that Europe is not its true native country, 

 but rather America, brought by ships with ballast. You have done 

 well to sow and study the plants of Erythraea capitata : not that 

 there can be the slightest doubt of its distinctness. I did so with 

 the Senecio spathulifolius, and S. campestris, and have been very much 

 interested by seeing them side by side and so very different. The 

 same is the case with the Herniarias. But these are points which 

 never come to the notice of herbarium botanists, and so are 

 totally ignored, and the plants at once combined. As I said in the 

 preface of the "Manual," our business is to distinguish living 

 plants, and define them — not to help possessors of herbaria 

 especially and exclusively. I trust that you are both returned 

 much better in health ; I am glad to say that we are well — thank 

 God for it. With our united kind regards, I am yours ever, 

 Charles C. Babington. 



