1005 



protest. The vegetation of Ireland betrays no greater affinity to that 

 of North America than the flora of England or any other country of 

 western Europe, and the discovery of a single American species so far 

 beyond its usual limits, is powerless to establish the supposed transi- 

 tion state on which to found its right to be looked upon as indigenous. 

 Sisyrinchium anceps is an abundant inhabitant of grassy woods and 

 pastures from New England to Louisiana : its bright blue flowers peer- 

 ing out Hke laughing eyes on the green world and azure heavens, justi- 

 fy the poetical name it has received in the land of the setting sun. 

 S. anceps, mucronatum, and Bermudianum would seem to be all 

 referrible to a single species, and my friend Dr. Darlington, of West 

 Chester, remarks (Fl. Cestrica) that in his Pennsylvanian plant the 

 spathe is decidedly shorter than the flowers, as Mr. Babington finds it 

 in that from Ireland. 



Wm. Arnold Bromfield. 



Eastmount, Eyde, Isle of Wight, 

 September 26tli, 1847. 



On the Credit-icorthiness of the Labels distrihuied from the Botanical 

 Society of London. By Hewett C. Watson, Esq. 



In a late Number of the ' Phytologist' some allusion is made to the 

 state of botanical nomenclature among British botanists at the period 

 when this periodical commenced its useful career. A part of the 

 passage on the subject runs as follows: — "The two Botanical Socie- 

 ties at that time distributed plants with equal inattention to correct 

 nomenclature, so that blunders became disseminated through the 

 country under the grave and pompous sanction of scientific authority. 

 Indeed, the blundering of Societies may have exercised an influence 

 in increasing the blundering of writers. As regards Societies, however, 

 a great improvement has taken place, and great care is now taken to 

 see that the plants distributed are correctly named." (Phytol. ii. 782). 



This censure is sufficiently sweeping, it must be allowed. But I 

 fear it must also be allowed, that the censure is substantially true and 

 justifiable ; some modifications being made, in order to adapt it more 

 exactly to the individualities of two different Societies, which have run 

 in different courses. Originally, the nomenclature on the labels of 

 the Edinburgh Society was far less inaccurate and blundering than 

 that of the London Society. But while the latter has been iraprovino- 

 very rapidly, the Edinburgh Society has been standing still or retro- 

 VOL. II. 6 K 



