83 



learn it if they chose from such examples as these. This considera- 

 tion alone will show that they were chiefly intended for those who are 

 not very far advanced in the study of Botany. 



Thomas Moore. 



Camden Town, March 3, 1848. 



Correction of a previous Error. By Thomas Moore, Esq. 



I regret to see that either myself or the compositors have com- 

 mitted two errors in the few remarks on Cyperus fuscus inserted in the 

 ' Phy tologist ' (Phytol. iii. 58) ; which errors exactly reverse what I 

 had intended to say. The first sentence should read thus : " I find 

 it stated in Mr. Babington's Manual and Mr. Steele's Handbook, that 

 Cyperus fuscus is a perennial ; " and the latter part of the last sentence 

 thus : " nevertheless, there seems no ground to doubt that Cyperus 

 fuscus is only of annual duration." The subscribers to the ' Phy- 

 tologist' will therefore be so good as to erase the words "annual" 

 and "believe" in the places referred to, and substitute "perennial" 



and " doubt." 



Thomas Moore. 

 Camden Town, March 3, 1848. 



is Gentiana acaulis wild in England f 

 By Hewett C. Watson, Esq. 



Mr. Sidebotham has greatly surprised me by stating that the 

 Gentiana acaulis has been gathered " several times on sand-hills near 

 Liverpool," and was found there "growing in abundance;" moreover, 

 that he possesses specimens brought thence in a living state. (See 

 Phytol. iii. 71). This seems to be pretty strong evidence; and yet 

 it is evidence which I feel unable to accept as a sufficient reason for 

 taking the Gentiana acaulis out of the list of "Excluded Species" in 

 the 'London Catalogue of British Plants.' The improbability of the 

 alleged fact appears to me sufficient to overbalance the testimony in 

 its support, and to render it more likely that the evidence is defective 

 through some error as to the species or its wildness. The sand-hills 

 near Liverpool have been very frequently scoured by botanical col- 

 lectors during the last quarter or half-century ; aud yet we do not 



