221 



be taken at a venture, its Flora may be considered as a good one if it 

 amount to as many as 200 species. 



W. H. Coleman. 



Ashby-de-la-Zoucl), Leicestershire, 

 July 14th, 1848. 



[The author of the foregoing paper was desirous of its being pub- 

 lished anonymously, fearing that it might be considered somewhat 

 commendatory of the ' Flora of Hertfordshire,' a work to which he ob- 

 viously refers, and one which is well known to be partially, perhaps 

 principally, his own production. Botanists will, however, at once 

 perceive that Mr. Coleman's valuable remarks are merely explanatory, 

 not laudatory, and that there is no necessity whatever for my depart- 

 ing so far from a positive rule as to publish them without his name. — 

 E.N.'] 



Characters of Malva verticillata and Malva crispa. 

 By Hewett C. Watson, Esq. 



In the second volume of the ' Phy tologist ' (Phytol. ii. 936 and 973) 

 are some remarks on the Malva verticillata and crispa, between which 

 there was difficulty of showing good distinctive characters. Those of 

 the fruit, explained by Mr. Borrer and Sir William Hooker, are true 

 so far as they go ; but they are little obvious unless in the perfectly 

 mature state, previous to which the characters assigned for M. verti- 

 cillata apply to the fruit of M. crispa. The distinctions afforded by 

 the ramification, as pointed out by Mr. Motley, are very obvious in 

 examples of the two species now growing in my garden within two 

 yards of each other, and originally raised in flower-pots in a frame, 

 under conditions of soil, moisture, &c. equalised as exactly as could 

 be. Both species grew into upright simple stems, in their early stage. 

 After they were turned out of the flower-pots into the open ground, 

 their growth became much more luxuriant and branching. The plants 

 of M. crispa continued to grow principally upwards by the elongation 

 of the stem, which produced distant branches, also tending upwards 

 at an angle of thirty degrees, more or less. The plants of M. verticil- 

 lata, on the contrary, threw out several branches near the surface of 

 the ground, divaricating from the central stem at an angle of fifty de- 

 grees, more or less, and giving that verticillate aspect to the ramifica- 

 tion which the specific name may have been intended to denote. 

 Vol. tit. 2 it 



