i ls 
—— E —— 
NEW PUBLICATIONS. 307 
the most disposed to contradict us, might have seen and proved, like 
us, or better than us, if they had devoted themselves to the same 
inquiries with materials similar to ours. We have not been able to 
resist the desire to quote these words of the learned author of the 
* Icones, which indicate, much better than We could have done, the 
point of view in which we have placed ourselves to study the genus 
Rubus, of which we have undertaken the history." (Genevier, * Essai,’ 
Taking Professor Babington as a representative of the second class, 
we find that ee also, unless we greatly mistake his meaning, holds that 
the ** species" which he adopts or establishes are (excluding mistakes 
arising from imperfect information which fuller inquiry will rectify) 
individualities of an absolute mes bounded by nature with a line 
of strict limitation. The rule w e lays down, or general principle 
of species-limitation which he enounces, is as follows :— 
** [f a Bramble is found to retain the same appearance, under different 
circumstances of soil and exposure, although many of its characters 
vary considerably, we may conclude that it is a true species and form 
some idea of its range of variation." (* British Rubi,’ p. 19.) 
To this any botanist who represents the first or third class imme- 
diately objects. ** If it varies considerably under different circumstances 
it does noć retain the same appearance," and the Müllerian asks, * By 
what rule, other than by a measure fixed arbitrarily in your own mind 
n each special case, do you unite together under one name as a single 
‘it,’ half-a-dozen or a dozen forms which I can undertake to dis- 
tinguish ?" To this inquiry we do not think that Professor Babington 
could return any answer that would satisfy an unprejudiced umpire. 
For our own part, we can only say that we heartily wish,—that, at any 
rate it would save an enormous amount of trouble, —if he had in this 
work and his other writings on this subject, and if the numerous writers 
of the class which he represents had as firm. ground under their feet 
as they seem to think that they are standing upon; but we cannot 
admit that the ground is firm, for this reason, amongst others, that 
after having examined authenticated specimens of every one of Pro- 
fessor Babington's species, and studied most of them in a growing 
state, we have had the opportunity of comparing with M. Genevier's 
work, a large collection of English and French specimens labelled by 
the latter, and that we cannot see that the 203 species in the one case, 
