Notices respecting Nexo Books. 287 



" Sometimes a blind hen meets with a grain of corn." Rumex 

 pulcher and maritimus, in spite of the scruples of some, are 

 established as distinct species beyond doubt. We are, how- 

 ever, still in want of the plant which Hudson called JR. palu- 

 dosus. The Alisma Plantago (3 and y, which Withering and 

 Symons had denominated lanceolata, appear to us to have 

 been worth preserving as a good species. The main object, 

 however, is to notice these distinct states, and whether they 

 are made varieties or species is of little consequence to science. 

 A. repens is added as new from a lamented accurate observer, 

 the Rev. H. Davies, author of the " Welsh Botanology." 



Menziesia ccerulea, for which we are indebted to the Messrs. 

 Brown, gardeners at Perth, is here united to M. polifolia 

 {Erica Dabeoci Fl. Br.), although the stamina are only eight, 

 thus bringing it in the artificial system nearer to its natural allies 

 the true Ericce. Mr. Salisbury's genus Calluna is sanctioned 

 for the Common Ling. 



Daphne Mezereian, which rested upon a single habitat of 

 Millar, is found to grow in divers places, and may be consi- 

 dered as undoubtedly English. The uncertainty concerning 

 our species of Elatine still continues. Mr. T. F. Forster 

 thinks with Vaillant, that it is distinct from the true Hydro- 

 piper of Linn., but it is still a doubt whether his plant and the 

 Shropshire plant are the same. He finds it plentifully, not 

 we believe "near Binfield," but on the Dam Head, at the Cas- 

 cade, Virginia Water, Berks. 



The learned and candid author has profited by Mr. D. 

 Don's Monograph of the Saxifrages. Saxifraga muscoides, 

 the ccespitosa of Hudson ; S.pygmcea, a discovery of Mr. James 

 Donn, curator of the Cambridge garden, — a name most pro- 

 lific in botanists ; S. affinis and incurvifolia, discoveries of an 

 ardent naturalist, Mr. Mackay; S. leptophylla, a Welsh species ; 

 and laetevirens, are all new : but so much doubt hangs over 

 some of them, that they require further observations to establish 

 their titles. The S. palmata E. B. is made a var. of S. caispi- 

 tosa E. B. British botanists will be pleased to see a new ha- 

 bitat in Yorkshire added for the beautiful S. Hi renins, for 

 which we are indebted to Mr. John Binks, a working miner 

 in Teesdale, who possessed no ordinary taste for the produc- 

 tions of nature. Hudson's Dianthus arenarius still remains 

 unresolved. Cucubalus baccifer is rejected. It was one of 

 Dillenius' additions, admitted on an authority which could 

 not afterwards be confirmed, as appears from the " Corre- 

 spondence of Linnaeus and other Naturalists," lately published. 

 Silene paradoxa, — the vexata questio of English botanists, — 



turns 



