484 



unprepared to separate what is true and borrowed from what is origi- 

 nal and imaginary, in the botanical foundation of the paper. For our 

 own individual part, we must confess a great distaste for ad captan- 

 dum articles hastily got up after the manner of Mr. Forbes's paper. 

 We can find nothing for extract. " What is new is not true : what 

 is true is not new." This aphorismal jingle of sound was never more 

 justly applied than in the present instance. Still, unsound as we 

 consider the paper to be, it is yet one which could never have ema- 

 nated from an intellect of mediocre character. Regarded as a fig- 

 ment of the imagination, it is ingenious — as a contribution to science 

 it is only vicious. 



No. 104. — " Observations on some plants obtained from the shores 

 of Davis's Straits," by William Seller, M.D. " Botanical Notices 

 from Spain," by Moritz Wilkomm. 



We have yet so incomplete a knowledge of Spanish Botany, 

 that the papers of Moritz Willkomm, sketchy and scrap-like though 

 they be, are still well worthy of being published, and we rejoice 

 to see the Editor of the ' Annals ' thus rendering them more ac- 

 cessible to the English readers. Of course we cannot rely im- 

 plicitly on the names given to the plants observed during botani- 

 cal tours. Subsequent and more leisurely examination usually 

 leads to corrections in regard to specific names, and it is proba- 

 ble that some such alterations will be required in those applied by 

 Willkomm. 



No. 105. — "On the Glyceria fluitans and G. plicata," by Tho- 

 mas Moore, Esq. " On the surface of the Stem and contents of the 

 medullary cells of Nuphar lutea [Smith)^'' by Julius Munter (translat- 

 ed from the Botanische Zeitung). "Report on a memoir by M. P. 

 Duchartre, entitled ' Observations on the Orgonogeny of the flower of 

 the Malvaceae,' by MM. Brongniart, Richard and De Jussieu." (tran- 

 slated from the Comptes Rendus for August, 1845). "Botanical No- 

 tices from Spain," by Moritz Willkomm. " On the officinal species 

 of Pepper," by M. Miguel, (taken from the author's ' Systema Pipera- 

 cearum). " Obituary : Professor Graham, of Edinburgh," by J. H. B. 



It is a rather remarkable circumstance that the two forms or species 

 of Glyceria should never have been distinguished, even as varieties, 

 by the botanists of England, who have latterly become so alert in 

 finding and recording varieties and describing them for species. 

 Closely alike as these plants are in general habit and the more obvious 

 characters, they certainly offer quite as clear peculiarities for specific 

 distinction as may be found in many other couples of closely allied 



