510 



And in the first paragraph of the article, he represents C. as main- 

 taining that there is evidence " sufficient to overthrow the specific 

 distinction between umbrosa, elegans, hirsuta, and Geum," and " to 

 require " a retractation and declaration from Mr. C. C. Babington, 

 the nature of which is not clearly expressed in the rather confused 

 and un grammatical paragraph referred to, but apparently a declara- 

 tion that he was in error in supposing the species distinct. C.'s reply 

 to this is, first, that. he said nothing whatever about specific distinc- 

 tions or specific distinctness ; secondly, that he never called upon Mr. 

 Babington to retract any opinion or declare any error in regard 

 thereto. 



In reference to the real question towards which the comments of 

 C. were directed, Mr. Babington has himself admitted that his former 

 statements are untenable. C. 



On the Disappearance of Plants from Localities once assigned to 

 them. By Edwin Lees, Esq., F.L.S. 



The exploring botanist who delights in out-of-door rambles, is 

 often perplexed by the non-appearance of plants in their recorded 

 places of growth; and if his temper, like ill-dried specimens, be "none 

 of the best," he perhaps, orally or in print, vents an imprecation on 

 the unlucky person who is conceived to have misled him, and who, 

 almost with a sneer, is at once adjudged to be no authority. The 

 more candid observer, conscious of the almost yearly changes that 

 occur in the localities of many plants, will not be so ready to decry 

 the remarks of his predecessors, but be willing to credit them, unless 

 in the case of actual specimens wrongly named. But observations of 

 changes in the habitats of plants, and of their disappearance from old 

 stations, require to be more frequently journalized than they are. I 

 have been led into these remarks from a statement of Dr. Bromfield's, 

 in his interesting ' Catalogue of the Plants growing wild in Hamp- 

 shire.' 



Dr. Bromfield (Phytol. iii. 494) mentions that he has been unable 

 to find Gnaphalium sylvaticum, var. rectum, in the Isle of Wight, 

 though stated to be " frequent in the south-west parts " of the island, 

 by Mr. J. Woods, jun. Now my own experience of this plant in 

 Worcestershire and Gloucestershire, goes to prove that it may be 

 most abundant in some seasons, and then not be visible again for a 



