527 



twenty-first species, with numerous varieties. When the whole have 

 been described w^e may take the liberty of copying out a list of the 

 names ; but doubtless, the descriptions will be published again, as 

 the 'Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh,' and be thus 

 brought more conveniently within the reach of British botanists. 

 Whatever differences of opinion may be entertained respecting the 

 limits of species, there can be no such diversity of view respecting the 

 value of accurate descriptions and synonyms of the various forms in 

 this ever-varying mass of species, subspecies, varieties, variations and 

 " states ;" and there is no other British botanist so well fitted for effi- 

 ciently accomplishing this task, as the individual into whose hands it 

 has now been taken. The descriptions are very long, averaging up- 

 wards of a page to a species. 



The following passage, from the paper of Mr. Thwaites, has an in- 

 terest, at least, for Algologists : " On examining, a few days ago, 

 some spores of Mesocarpus scalaris, Hassall, I thought I could detect 

 in them indications of a quaternary division, and I sent specimens to 

 Mr. Berkeley for his inspection, who wrote me in reply, that he could 

 see the division into four pretty distinctly. I have since observed the 

 same peculiarity in the spores of Tyndaridea insignis, Hass., and 

 Staurocarpus gracilis, Hass., and, as Mr. Berkeley remarks to me, it 

 may prove more general than has hitherto been supposed. The sepa- 

 ration of the contents of the sporangium into four portions, does not 

 take place in our three species until the fruit is nearly mature, and 

 this soon afterwards becomes too opaque for the character to be seen, 

 so that it can be observed only in a particular state of the plant. 

 The sporangium in all the species I have mentioned is more or less 

 compressed vertically." 



C. 



Correction of an inaccuracy in a Character assigned to the Primula 

 elatior of Jacquin. By Hewett C. Watson, Esq. 



A NOTABLE inaccuracy of expression occurs in the first volume of 

 the * Phytologist,' page 1002, fourth line from the top, which must 

 have puzzled any looker into Nature, who sought the peculiarity in 

 the corolla, by which the Primula elatior was there stated to be dis- 

 tinguishable from the P. vulgaris and veris, and their varieties. The 

 passage runs thus : " In the cowslip and primrose, and all their varie- 



