THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[SECOND SERIES.] 

 No. 64. APRIL 1853. 



XXIV. — Remarks upon British Plants. 

 By Charles C. Babington, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S. &c.* 



Since the publication of the third edition of my 'Manual of 

 British Botany/ my attention has been directed to several 

 groups of plants, either by the discovery of new native species, 

 or by finding that I have taken an erroneous view of them in 

 that work. In this paper the results of the study which I have 

 devoted to the plants included in it are presented to the Botanical 

 Society. 



1. Thalictrum majus and T. minus. 



The Thalictra, which usually pass under the names of T. ma- 

 jus and T. minus in Britain, seem to be very imperfectly under- 

 stood, and probably constitute three distinct species. In my 

 * Manual ' (ed. 3) I have given T. minus, T. flexuosum, T. sax- 

 utile, and T. majus as native species, but now think that that is 

 one too many, and that the so-called T. majus is formed out of 

 larger states of each of the others, but especially of T. saxatile 

 and T. flexuosum. I must however protest against the extreme 

 measure of joining all these Thalictra under the name of T. mi- 

 nus, as is done in the ' British Flora ' (ed. 6), and can only ac- 

 count for it by supposing that the justly celebrated botanists 

 who are the authors of that work were unacquainted with some 

 of the plants. 



In drawing up the following revised characters for our plants 

 I have been greatly assisted by my friend Mr. F. J. A. Hort, 

 who has paid much attention to these species, and freely com- 

 municated to me the results at which he has arrived. 



Attention should be especially directed to the presence or not 

 of leaves from the lower joinings of the stem, as it appears to be 



* Read before the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, Feb. 10, 1853. 

 Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol.xi. 18 



