NEW PUBLICATIONS. 29° 
scription. Take, for instance, the only aquatic Ranunculus with sub- 
merged leaves; who could say what “form” has been used in making the 
drawing? . The details of fruit, ete., generally given, have been judi- 
ciously omitted; it was a bold step to venture on a petal which would 
suit equally the small form. of R trichophyllus and the large one of 
R. peltatus. We would suggest that the various details crowded into 
the small cuts should in some way be named; at present they must 
puzzle tyros. . 
Whoever pays more than a passing attention to botany will inevitably 
seek for more extended information than he can find in Mr. Bentham’s 
‘Handbook.’ To him the work of Mr. Syme will be welcome, for 
while he carefully observes and gives their right position to permanent 
forms, he is yet cautious in admitting what may be nothing more than 
temporary, local, or other accidental varieties. . He avoids, on the one 
hand, the extreme views advocated. by some French botanists; and on 
the other, the wholesale lumping of well-marked ** forms " favoured by 
a few deservedly eminent botanists. In his preliminary remarks, Mr. 
Syme states his views on the value of different groups inferior to the 
genus. He approvingly quotes the opinion and names given by Mr. 
Watson in the fourth volume of the ‘ Cybele,’ where he proposes the 
term ‘ ver-species ’ for the well-defined and. generally adopted species ; 
* sub-species’ for more obscure groups, where the distinctions between 
themselves are slighter, less generally recognized, or apparently gradua- - 
ting into each other; and ‘super-species’ for a group of allied sub- 
species. Mr. Syme, we think, wisely adopts these views in his work ; 
he considers those plants as sub-species ** which have less strongly 
marked differences between them than are found between generally re- 
ceived species, but which. are, nevertheless, too constant in their cha- 
racters to be considered merely varieties. Such plants have recently 
attracted much notice from many Continental and a few of our own - 
4botanists ; and though their efforts have sometimes been stigmatized 
as species-making, we are indebted to them for a much more accurate 
knowledge of plants than we previously possessed.” The term ‘va- 
riety’ he applies “to forms which are, or are supposed to be, confined - 
to individuals, and which may revert to the original type in a single or 
a few generations." As an illustration. of the practical application of 
these views, we may adduce Thalictrum minus, L., which he makes 
a super-species, including the two sub-species, T. eu-minus, with its 
