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nostic description, which was copied into the Report printed in the 

 ' Phytologist ' (ii. 575) for July, 1846. And by another Report from 

 the same Society, printed in the ' Phytologist' (iii. 269) for the present 

 month of September, it appears that Mr. G. S. Gibson and I have been 

 simultaneously sending to the Botanical Society similar forms of the 

 F. germanica under different names. This difference of nomenclature, 

 together with a clerical or typographical error in the Report, leads to 

 ambiguity and confusion. And as several botanists have lately ap- 

 plied to me about these plants and their names, I think it desirable 

 to pen some explanations. Three apparent species are probably dif- 

 fused through England ; and it will not be too late to look for examples 

 of them in October. Before another summer I trust that the Botanical 

 Society of London will have rendered them sufficiently familiar to all 

 its members who care to receive specimens. 



By far the clearest account of these alleged species which I have 

 seen, occurs in a memoir upon them by Jordan, read before the Lin- 

 nean Society of Lyons in the autumn of 1846, and afterwards published 

 with characteristic figures. The descriptions and figures of Jordan, 

 together with specimens communicated to the Botanical Society of 

 London by M. Sagot of Paris, afford the most ample means for iden- 

 tifying the three English species, real or supposed. Jordan alleges, 

 and probably with justice, that the attempt to describe two species 

 only, instead of three or four, has led to confusion and uncertainty ; 

 specimens of the intermediate species having been referred, now to 

 one, now to another, of the two described ; thus misapplying or 

 crossing their proper characters. The descriptions of that author are 

 lengthy ; but the more peculiar distinctions are repeated in a con- 

 densed summary, which 1 copy below with some trifling omissions : — 



" Filago spatulata (Presl) is distinguished from the three others by 

 its leaves, which are always more or less spatulate, never widened at 

 their base, more spreading and broader; the branches much more 

 open ; the clusters larger, more depressed, less cottony, and furnished 

 with longer and more spreading bracts ; the heads less numerous, of 

 a more oval form, with sharper angles, and scales of larger size and 

 more curved. 



" Filago lutescens (Jord.) is readily recognized by its yellowish to- 

 mentum, and by the points of the scales which very frequently assume 

 a beautiful purple colour. The form of its leaves distinguishes it per- 

 fectly both from F. spatulata and F. canescens. Indeed, they are al- 

 ways lanceolate above, but obtuse with a small mucro at their tip. 

 The blanches are but little spreading. The clusters hold exactly an 



