1888] BOTANICAL CORRESPONDENCE. 421 



is aquatictis, and very fine it is, with its grand club-shaped mass of 

 fruit. Meimi also is fine. So you see we have a good set of plants 

 to look at — although they will not make good specimens for an 

 herbarium. How different it all is from your southern flora. On 

 the high tops of course there are many other interesting plants, 

 but I do not venture after them. This is a district not only of 

 high hills, but of great distances, and also great obstructions from 

 the deer, which keep us off many nice places. It is a beautifully 

 invigorating air, and we both benefit greatly from it. We hope to 

 remain until the end of September. — Yours truly, Charles C. 

 Babington. 



To the same. 



Cambridge, Dec. 6, 1888. 



Dear Mr. Briggs, — Have you ever gathered a Trifolmm in Caldown 

 Quarries, Plymouth, agreeing with my Tr. prcdense parviflorum ? 

 The late Mr. W. S. Hore sent me a specimen so long since as 1839, 

 which I have so named. It is a very much smaller plant than 

 T. pratense. I gathered it myself at Walton-on-Naze, Essex ; and 

 Borrer, near Elgin. It is so different in look that one can hardly 

 think it the same as T. pratense, but it may be so, as G-odron quotes 

 a T. microphyllum of Desv. described in a Journal which I have 

 not at hand, as much smaller and growing in very dry places. I 

 have this same plant from Lange as his T. pratense microphyllum, 

 which he supposed might be my plant. He found it in fields near 

 Stockholm. He says "capitulis pedunculatis, floribus pedicillatis, 

 corolla calycis longitudine."* He figured it as my var. parviflorum 

 in "Fl. Danica." t. 2782. It seems more deserving of notice than 

 I had supposed. — Yours truly, Charles C. Babington. 



To W. Wilson, Esq., Junr., Hillocks of Terpersie, Alford, Aberdeen. 



5, BaooKsiDE, Cambridge, Dec. 6, 1888. 

 Dear Mr. Wilson, — I have the specimen of my Trifolium pratense- 

 parviflm-um before me. It has heads not half the size of those of 

 pratense, but agrees with it in nearly all other respects, except that 

 these small heads are upon decided stalks, and the corolla is very 

 short. The late Mr. Borrer (a very great authority) thought that 

 it was a form of pratense, so does the great Danish botanist, Lange, 

 who published a figure of it in the ''Flora Danica" on plate 2782. 

 It seems to be a variety of T. pratense, growing on drier ground 

 than the usual wild form of that plant. It is given in all the eight 

 editions of my "Manual," and one of my specimens was found in 

 Brodie Park, Elgin, by the late celebrated botanist, W. Borrer, Esq. ; 

 the others are from the south of England. I should like to have 

 seen your plant before giving any name to it, as I can hardly fancy 

 my plant to be of any value for cultivation. — Believe me to be, very 

 truly yours, Charles C. Babington. 



* Cited from memory ; exact words on next page. 



