585 



statements on merely negative evidence. To assume and assert 

 that things do not exist, simply because they have not been detected 

 by a certain individual, is a rash proceeding, where everything else 

 renders their existence probable. It is high time that the Annals, 

 which gave such prominence, and its circulation to the error, should 

 correct the false evidence which was inadvertently spread thereby. 

 On these Saxifrages, Mr. Spruce writes thus : 



" I must not omit to state that I gathered Saxifraga umbrosa, hir- 

 suta and Geum growing together, and I wish I could say, not pass- 

 ing into each other. I feel satisfied, however, that if we will have two 

 species, we must, to be consistent, admit three, the three above named, 

 which are admirably though briefly characterised in the second edi- 

 tion of Koch's Synopsis. I have seen few Saxifragae in the Pyrenees, 

 which might not safely be referred to one or the other of these, yet 

 there are some which appear exactly intermediate between S, um- 

 brosa and S hirsuta ; for example, I have observed a state possessing 

 an expanded and cuneate petiole as in the former, and yet hairy on 

 the entire upper surface ; and another with leaves oblong-rotundate, 

 tapering suddenly into the petiole (as in S. hirsuta) and yet the latter 

 merely ciliate at the margins. 



As to the cuttings of the edges of the leaves, all the three vary from 

 crenate to inciso-serrate. (See Phytol. ii, 380 and 381, for the facts 

 and references in the discussion about the Saxifrages of Ireland.) 



The rest of the No. is occupied with Mr. Bentham's descriptions of 

 South American plants, and Dr. Taylor's account of the new Junger- 

 mannias, from various distant lands. C. 



Notice of the ^Annals and Magazine of Natural History^ Nos. 113, 

 114, 115, & 116, dated May, June, and July, 1846. 



(Continued from page 508.) 



No. 113. Contents: " Notes on the altitudinal Range of the Mosses 

 in Aberdeenshire;" by George Dickie, M.D. &c. "A Synopsis of 

 the British Rubi ;" by Charles C. Babington, M.A. (continued and 

 concluded from former Nos.) " On the development of Chara ;" by 

 C. MuUer, (translated from the Botanische Zeitung). " Mode of for- 

 mation of the Spore in a species of Vesiculifera;" by G. H. K. 

 Thwaites, Esq., " Botanical Notices from Spain," by Moritz Will- 

 komm, (translated from the Botanische Zeitung). " Bibliographical 

 Notices of the 'Flora Calpensis' and ' Outlines of Structural and Phy- 



