350 ON A NEW SPECIES OF OREOPANAX. 
species, as if the biennial form were a divergent variety. Seeds whieh 
germinate in spring, among corn or elsewhere, produce plants which 
soon run up to a stem, and which (on that account?) have more 
simple and less hispid leaves than are usually seen as radical leaves on 
the biennial plant. As we see the species by the Thames side the 
seeds germinate and become plants early in the autumn. — These live 
through the winter, and flower in the succeeding spring or summer. 
They have a tuft of green and rough radical leaves, which are more 
lyrate-pinnatifid than the leaves of the annual form. As the flowering- 
stem rises from this winter tuft in the following spring, the leaves pro- 
duced on it are smooth and become glaucous in hue, especially up- 
wards. "This biennial form seems to be the true type for the species ; 
at any rate, it is so in our climate. 
A confusion between the wild states or stocks of Napus and Rapa 
is of ancient date. Possibly the crossing of names in the two lan- 
guages may have somewhat contributed to the confusion in England, 
where we cross-translate Rapa or Rapum into Tur-nep (the old and 
correct spelling), and Napus into Rape. Near two centuries ago Ray 
thus wrote under the head of ** Napus sylvestris." . . . * Est hee for- 
tasse Rapum sylvestre non bulbosum Lobelii do. Cert? planta illa 
qué in insula Eliensi seritur, unde oleum Rape Oil dictum exprimitur, 
huic eadem videtur; proinde Rapum sylvestre et Napus sylvestris una 
eademque fortasse planta sunt; quód si diverse fuerint, quam pro 
Napo sylvestri hactenus habuimus, Rapum potiüs sylvestre censenda 
est: siquidem Napus sativa nobis peregrina est ; quidni et sylvestris ?" 
(‘ Synopsis,’ ed. 2, p. 167.) 
What Napus sylvestris may be it is not in my power to say, never 
having seen a wild Rape; but, if asked by any modern Ray to point 
out what apum sylvestre is, my reply would be,—the wild form of the 
Turnip, the biennial campestris, the rough-leaved Thames-side Bras- 
sica. 
ON A NEW SPECIES OF OREOPANAX, FROM CHON- 
TALES, NICARAGUA. 
By BErTHOLD Seemann, Pu.D., F.L.S., ETC. 
-2 The genus Oreopanax is not numerously represented in Nicaragua. 
In the pine region of the mountains of New Segovia and Matagalpa, 
