1884] BOTANICAL CORRESPONDENCE. 401 



To W. Mathews, Esq. 



5, Brookside, Cambridge, Jan. 25, 1884. 



Dear Mathews, — Your plant does seem very close to Juncus 

 tenuis, judging by the characters as given by Koch (ed. 2) which is 

 the only book that I have at hand. Do you wish the specimen 

 returned now, or have you others, or can you get them ? I should 

 like to keep it until I can go to the Herbarium, and place it beside 

 authentic specimens of /. tenuis. I think, however, "as at present 

 advised," that it is a good discovery. I am getting better slowly. — 

 Yours ever, Charles C. Babington. 



To Henry Groves, Esq. 



Cambridge, April 30, 1884. 



Dear Sir, — Will you tell me the true name of this Ghara 1 I am 

 asked the name, and cannot tell quite certainly. — Yours truly, 

 Charles C. Babington. 



To Frederick Townsend, Esq. 



Cambridge, July 18, 1884. 



Dear Townsend, — I see you take no notice of the seeds in 

 Euphrasia officinalis. Is it that you do not find any constancy in 

 their shape, etc., or that you think such characters of no value in 

 the genus 1 Many years since I paid much attention to these plants, 

 and observed four forms distinguished by their corollas and capsules, 

 and the teeth of the leaves. I have notes of these in the " Manual " 

 (ed. 1, MS.). My characters depended upon the shape of the fruit, 

 and the toothing of the leaves and the corolla. I append them : 

 (a) lower lip unequally lobed, lobes and helmet entire, with three 

 slightly prominent points upon each, palate yellow, helmet tinged 

 with purple, fr. lanceolate-truncate, 1. with five ascending lobes on 

 each side, nearly cordate ; {^) lower lip nearly equally lobed, lobes 

 of helmet with two rounded notches separated by a sharp prominent 

 point which is longer than the side lobes, fr. widening quite to the 

 truncate top, 1. narrow, three ascending lobes on each side ; (7) 

 lower lip rather unequally lobed, lobes of helmet each with one 

 large notch with a small acute tooth in its centre, fr. widening 

 nearly if not quite to the truncate top, 1. obovate, with three 

 ascending lobes on each side ; (^) lower lip unequally lobed, upper 

 as in 7, fr. widening through two-thirds of its length, then narrowing 

 slightly to truncate top, 1. roundly cordate, with four acute spreading 

 lobes on each side ; a, 7, and have filaments downy at base, ^ 

 glabrous. I doubt if these notes are of any value. I have since 

 neglected them, as probably too variable. I have specimens closely 

 resembling Salisburgensis, which would not come into the plan of the 



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