688 



" increased fertility " be applicable to the case. Have we not then a 

 right to conclude that Fairy Rings still remain, as Knapp said, an 

 opprobium physiologicum ? 



John Ford Davis. 

 Royal Crescent, Bath, 

 November, 7th, 1846. 



[Our correspondent, who considers the theory of radiation imagina- 

 tive, and our friend O. P., who considers it new, will be equally surprised 

 to leani that M. Adrien de Jussieu, in his 'Botanique,' has com- 

 pletely forestalled O. Ps.' views, and published them as obvious and 

 established truths. This theory is taught in the schools of France 

 with the acknowledged principia of botanical education of which it 

 now forms a part. M. Jussieu's observations are quoted at a subse- 

 quent page of the present number, and will be read with pleasure by 

 those who take an interest in the subject. — Editor]. 



Notice of ' a Catalogue of the Phcenogamous Plants and Ferns of 

 Great Britain, arranged according to the natural orders ; with 

 a copious list of synonyms carefully compiled from SteudeVs 

 Nomenclator Botanicus, Smithes English Flora, Hooker''s Bri- 

 tish Flora, Lindleys Synopsis, Babington's Manual, and other 

 sources. By Henry Ibbotson.' Parts I and II. 1846. (7b be 

 completed in six Parts). 



Each successive author of an English Flora, whether with or with- 

 out good reasons thereunto moving, invariably discards sundry old 

 established names of plants, and substitutes other names in their 

 stead. The reasons for such name-changing are various; sometimes 

 good and sufficient ; sometimes, it is to be regretted, neither good nor 

 sufficient. 



A change of name becomes proper and necessary, where any pre- 

 ceding author has incorrectly applied the name of some different 

 species to the plant which really inhabits Britain ; as, for example, in 

 the case of Crepis virens being substituted for Crepis tectorum in re- 

 cent works, and in the case of Lepidium Smithii being used instead of 

 Lepidium hirtum. Equally proper and necessary is the introduction 

 of a new name, in those instances where two of our native species 

 have been confused together, and described under a single name; as 

 in the case of OEnanthe Phellandrium and QEnanthe fluviatilis, or in 



