THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[THIRD SERIES.] 



** perlitora spargite museum, 



Naiades, et circum vitreos considite fontes : 

 Pollice virgineo teneros hie carpite flores : 

 Floribus et pictum, divas, replete canistrum. 

 At vos, o Nymphse Craterides, ite sub undas ; 

 Ite, recurvato variata corallia trunco 

 Vellite muscosis e rupibus, et mihi conchas 

 Ferte, Deaj pelagi, et pingui conchylia succo." 



N. Parthenii Giannetlasii Eel. 1. 



No. 85. JANUARY 1865. 



I. — On the British Arctia. By Charles C. Babington, M.A., 

 F.R.S., Professor of Botany in the University of Cambridge. 



IN former volumes of these ' Annals ' (ser. 1. iv. 253 ; ser. 2. xvii. 

 369; ser. 3. ii. 351) I endeavoured to define the British species 

 of the genus Arctium, and hoped at the time that I had cleared 

 up most of the difficulties attending them, but well knew that 

 some points, and those not unimportant, remained in doubt. It 

 is now my wish to make a few additional remarks upon these 

 plants, because information which has been gradually obtained 

 has shown that some of the conclusions formerly arrived at are 

 not well founded. In the pursuit of truth we often have to 

 alter our views; and truth now requires me to announce a 

 change, and to acknowledge that I have certainly been in error 

 in not a few of my former ideas — ideas which I have continued 

 to hold until very recently. This reconsideration of the subject 

 has been chiefly caused by the remarks of my valued and learned 

 correspondent, M. F. Crepin, of Gand. Before he had seen my 

 papers in these 'Annals/ that eminent botanist pointed out that 

 three well-defined species of Lappa, as he names the genus, 

 exist in Belgium *, namely Lappa tomentosa, Lam., L. minor, 

 DC, and L. major, Gaertn. He states that the former is well 



* Notes sur quelques Plantes rares ou critiques de la Belgique, fasc. 

 i. p. 15. 



Ann. $ Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 3. Vol. xv. 1 



