588 



Alexander specifies some instances of spurious species which are 

 recognized or invented by botanists of that school ; and as the evil is 

 spreading into England, it may not be out of place to quote a passage 

 or two, in relation to this subject. 



" With regard to the Erysimum, I may say as I did of the Potentil- 

 las and Primulas, that there is no drawing an exact line between the 

 different forms in the genus. E. carniolicum, odoratum, strictum, 

 repandura, crepidifolium, change their names with every herbarium 

 one looks into." .... " The fact is, that all five are one and the 

 same species. Books are usually written by chamber botanists, who 

 receive only the exti'eme forms, characteristic specimens, and hence 

 arises this multiplicity of species." 



Again, " Bohemian botanists, Tausch and Co., who live in a coun- 

 try where there is very little variety of climate and situation, seem in- 

 capable of conceiving the vei-satility of plants in accommodating them- 

 selves to circumstances. A more remarkable instance of this qual- 

 ity is seen in the Moehringia, which on hot, dry limestone rocks 

 is M. Ponae, and in the crevices and under the shadow of bushes M. 

 muscosa. In ravines which are constantly damp and shady I have 

 remarked the same transition of M. trinervia into M. heterophylla. A 

 very careful and excellent botanist, Mr. Zehentner, has collected 

 transition forms with as much care as others throw them away ; among 

 Arenarias, Campanulas, Primulas and other genera, he has shown that 

 great number of so-called species are only varieties." 



We heartily wish that a number of English botanists, would set to 

 work to collect varieties and intermediates. The accumulation and 

 preservation of such physical evidences, is the best antidote to the 

 vanity of species-making, and to the less excuseable dishonesty in 

 science, which sometimes prompts authors and editors, to suppress facts 

 of this kind, when they happen to conflict with the opinions which 

 they have themselves too hastily printed. 



No. 116. Contents: "On the circulation of the Sap in the Interior 

 of Cells;" by Hugo von Mohl, (translated from the Botanische Zei- 

 tung.) "Observations on the Cell-Membrane of Plants;" by G. H. 

 K. Thvvaites. " Botanical Society of Edinburgh." 



