667 



appearance ; and indeed each of the four plants now mentioned is 

 known at a glance by all who have been accustomed to see them in 

 their native places." But I think botanists are standing on slippery 

 ground when they assume a marked difference of aspect as a reason 

 for adopting weak or variable specific characters. Every tolerably 

 distinct variety of a plant is readily known from its type by some pe- 

 culiarity of aspect, and certain differences of structure, although pro- 

 bably only of degree, must be present to impart such peculiarity of 

 appearance; yet as a general rule, we never drjeam of making "habit" 

 a reason for justifying a separation from the typical state of the spe- 

 cies, unless we can establish for the variety some better claim to dis- 

 junction based on permanent deviations, or what appear constantly to 

 be such, in some organ or organs of importance, from the normal or 

 more usual condition under which the plant presents itself. Yet I 

 fear that in our zeal for establishing a new species we too often per- 

 mit a difference of habit to be a warrant for our precipitancy, and to 

 serve as a make-weight in the absence of more solid and tangible 

 characters. I confess to an exclusive partiality for good broad cha- 

 racters in species, and hold that a plant which is not readily distin- 

 guishable " on paper " is not likely to be much more so in the field or 

 the herbarium. 



The floral leaves of my specimens of L. intermedium are all spread- 

 ing, not deflexed, as in L. purpureum and L. incisum, and are far less 

 hairy than in these ; the verticillasters are quite distinct, as in L. am- 

 plexicaule, but not so remote, the stem very copiously branched at 

 base, and in other respects well according with the description of 

 Fries (Novit. p. 192), the author of the species. The leaves in my 

 plant, however, are not strictly reniform-cordate, but rather cordate, 

 like those of L. purpureum and L. incisum, only deeply and coarsely 

 incised, as in L. amplexicaule, the calyx-teeth rigid and spreading, 

 not connivent or rather erect, as in that, after flowering. 



Lamium purpureum. In cultivated and waste ground, gardens, 

 fallows, on ditch and hedge-banks, walls, and in grassy places, every- 

 where abundant. Var. /3. Flowers white, or nearly so. On a hedge- 

 bank at Fishbourne, near Ryde. 



album. On hedge-banks and walls, in waste ground, the 



grassy borders of fields, and amongst rubbish ; very frequent, and 

 widely dispersed over the county and island, but often rare or even 

 wanting in certain limited districts or particular localities. A de- 

 cidedly unfrequent plant about Ryde, at Binstead and elsewhere, oc- 

 casionally. More common on the greensand, as about Shanklin. 



