14. R. LEUCOSTACHYS. 117 



rounding the wood. The thin leaves of the R. Leiglitonia' 

 ims, and other states of the species, are sometimes nearly 

 naked on the under side; the long hairs being few, and the 

 felt represented by a thin coat of very short recurved hairs. 

 Such plants often much resemble some of the allied species, 

 and are not easily distinguished from them by technical cha- 

 racters. To the practised eye they present less, although 

 still considerable, difficulty. 



In rare Ciises the aciculi and setae on the barren stem are 

 tolerably abundant, and the plant would, to a casual ob- 

 server, seem to belong to the Radulce or even the Glandu- 

 losi. But in every other respect these plants present the 

 true characters of R. vestltus. A specimen gathered by 

 Leighton, near Shrewsbury in 1847, is the most marked 

 English example that I have seen. The R. vestitus of Wui;- 

 gen [Ruh. RJienan. No. 16) has this armature well marked. 

 It is very nearly my former R. Leightonianus, and has its 

 leaves almost naked beneath. No. 17 of that collection is 

 an extreme example of the same plant as changed by living 

 in much shade. 



The R. diversifolius (Lind.), as described in the first 

 edition of his Synopsis, and formerly cultivated under his 

 eye in the Horticultural Garden (from whence I have seen 

 an authentic specimen), is the R. vestitus: the plant bearing 

 the same name in the second edition of his Synopsis, and so 

 named for Leighton, will be found described as R. diversi- 

 folius on a future page, amongst the Glandidosi Kcehleriani. 

 This very remarkable change, made unknowingly, in the 

 application of a name has been the cause of not a little diffi- 

 culty, and even of the use of rather hard words. Each 

 writer naturally believed that the evidence in favour of his 

 own view of the question was uncontrovertible; in one case 

 being founded upon authentic specimens gathered from the 

 bush, to which Mr Borrer was referred for them by Dr 



