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Occurrence of Lycopodium annotinum in England, 

 By Edward Newman. 



In announcing the occurrence of Lycopodium annotinum in Eng- 

 land, I have to apologize to its discoverer, the Rev. Robert Rolleston, 

 of Ambleside, for expressing somewhat approaching to a doubt of the 

 accuracy of his information. A few days since this gentleman in- 

 formed me by letter that this, the rarest of British Lycopodia, and 

 never previously found in England, had been discovered near Great 

 Langdale. I had so repeatedly been disappointed by similar reports, 

 finding, in every instance, that the plant turned out to be the very 

 common L. clavatum, that I begged for the sight of specimens before 

 noting so interesting a fact. Mr. Rolleston most kindly and promptly 

 transmitted them, and they prove most incontestably the accuracy of 

 his judgment: they are veritable specimens of the rarer species, and 

 thus we have an English habitat of L. annotinum in addition to the 

 Scotch and Welsh ones already published. Mr. Rolleston very pro- 

 perly declines to point out the exact locality, knowing the plant 

 would soon be exterminated were its locality and its rarity made 

 known to the lake guides. 



Edward Newman. 



Note on the Geographical Range in Britain of Native Plants. 

 By Edward Newman. 



A CAREFUL perusal of Mr. Watson's 'Cybele' has led to the reflec- 

 tion, how great a service might be rendered to phytology generally, 

 and to the geographical portion of that science in particular, by in- 

 serting in the pages of the ' Phytologist' a record of careful observa- 

 tions on the range of British species, and more particularly of those 

 which Mr. Watson has included in his first volume. A glance at Mr. 

 Watson's work will show how vast is the extent of information yet to 

 be gained : his summaries, laborious though they be, are still confes- 

 sedly imperfect, and in many instances seem rather to indicate the 

 information required than that possessed. In most cases this will be 

 seen to result mainly from the total untrustworthiness of the authori- 

 ties. This untrustworthiness arises from several causes, for instance: — 



1st. The interested communications of guides and dealers. 



