I860.] REVIEWS. 187 



It appears that Professor Buckman has ennobled the wild oat. 

 Qy. Has he, by cultivation, succeeded in changing Avena fatua 

 into the Potato-oat, early Angus, or some valuable variety? 



It is inferred from probabilities, that there are limits to varia- 

 tion (see p. 4), and that change appears less common in the more 

 complex forms of vegetable beings, — for example, in Comjoo.yite and 

 Umbellifera, etc., — than in those plants wherein " the structure 

 does not depart so widely from the leaf-type :" we suppose the 

 author means, in the monocotyledonous forms. The Essay con- 

 cludes with a remark which we all know by experience as well 

 as testimony to be too true, viz. that there is a tendency to de- 

 generacy prevalent in all valuable varieties of vegetation. We 

 could believe this though unsupported by the high authority of 

 the famous Latin epic poet : it is however valuable as a record of 

 the experience of an acute observer who lived twenty centuries 

 ago. This tendency unhappily is manifested not only in the 

 physical but also in the moral world. " Video meliora proboque ; 

 deteriora sequor.'^ 



Zusdtze und Berichtigungen zu meiner Flora der Pfalz ; von Dr. 

 ScHULTz. [Additions and Emendations to the Flora of the Pa- 

 latinate.) 



The following account of the times of blooming of the under- 

 mentioned British Thalictra may be of some assistance in deter- 

 mining the species of this difiicult genus. 



Thalictrum praecox, mihi (i. e. Dr. Schultz), T. majus, Gr. and 

 God., but neither of Koch nor Jacq., is the first in flower. It 

 blossoms about the end of May. Grenier and Godron adopt 

 T. majus, Jacq., as their species. See Gr. and God., p. 7. When 

 will botanists leave off heaping names upon names ? T. prcecox, 

 Schultz, a new synonym ! Let it pass, because it flowers in the 

 end of May ! 



T. sylvaticum, Koch. Is this a variety of T. majus, Jacq., or is 

 it any form of what many British botanists call T. flexuosum ? 

 Whatever it be, our author tells us that it flowers eight days later 

 than the former. 



T. minus, L. [T. montanum, Wallr.), flowers about the 14th of 

 June. 



