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land and Scotland, have teen -discovered for the interesting plant to which they refer. 

 But they are not, perhaps, aware by whose means or in what manner it was first made 

 known that Potamogeton prselongus had been found in this country. In the summer 

 of 1832, 1 found this plant first in the moss of Litie, and soon afterwards in Lochlee, 

 both stations within the county of Nairn. After examining it over and over, and 

 comparing it with the descriptions given in Hooker's ' British Flora,' I could not iden- 

 tify it with any species there described. I at last showed a specimen to my friend, 

 Mr. William A. Stables, of Cawdor Castle, who had not previously seen it, and could 

 not name it. Ever more ready to promote a friend's fame than his own, Mr. Stables 

 in 1833, sent some specimens to Dr. Walker Arnott, who pronounced the plant to be 

 Potamogeton prselongus (adding several synonymes), and " new to the British Flora." 

 It is highly probable that it had been, in several instances, mistaken for another spe- 

 cies before the time to which I have alluded, but certainly it was not known by any 

 distinct name as a native of Britain until, through the communication of Mr. Stables, 

 it was named by Dr. Amott. I forget whether it was before or after he knew its name 

 that Mr. S. found the plant growing in Lochindorb. With reference to what I have now 

 written, I may just remark, that I have no wish to depreciate the botanical services of 

 others in order to extol my own, or to take away from the merit — if merit there be — 

 of the mere discovery of a plant previously unknown. But I think that those who do 

 actually make discoveries, knowing or suspecting them to be so, certainly do very lit- 

 tle for the cause of botanical science by neglecting to communicate them. And in my 

 honest opinion my excellent friend already named has, with respect to the plant in 

 question, more merit than any who have had a hand in adding it to the British Flora. 

 The description of P. praelongus is now so well known, and has been so recently in- 

 serted in your pages, (Phytol. 28), that it need not be here repeated. There is, how- 

 ever, one peculiarity in the leaves, which I think has not been quite correctly descril)ed 

 by our British botanists. By some they are said to be " obtuse," by others " hooded " 

 at the point ; and by others, I think, they are not, in that particular, described at all. 

 I would describe them as terminating in what resembles the bow of a boat, and I think 

 the " foliis apice navicularibus " of the continental botanists — for which expression I 

 am also indebted to Mr. Stables — forms the best possible description of them. When 

 dried and flattened they are of course split at the point. The lamented author of ' The 

 Northern Flora,' who did live to finish what would have formed the most interesting 

 of all our local Floras, assigns, on the authority of Francis Adams, Esq., Surgeon, 

 Banchory, the feminine gender to the word Potamogeton. In an appendix to Dr. 

 Murray's work, Mr. Adams has furnished ' Notes from the Ancients on certain indige- 

 nous species ; ' and among other things remarks — " Modern botanists have fallen into 

 strange mistakes about the gender of this word. Thus Sprengel, in his ' History of 

 Botany,' makes it masculine ; and Hooker, in his ' Flora Scotica,' makes it neuter 

 Now it so happens that the word is unquestionably feminine in Latin, as is proved 

 from the following passage in the N. H. of Pliny: — "Potamogeton adversatur et cro- 

 codilis : itaque secum habent earn qui venantur. Castor hanc aliter noverat &c." Dr. 

 Murray adds in a note, that " general principles, as well as the authority of Pliny, may 

 be said to be in favour of Potamogeton being a feminine word." — J. B. Brichan ; 

 Manse of Banchory, by Abderdeen, May 16, 1842. 



166. Enquiry respecting Pyrola media. As it is very important that published lists 

 of plants should be correct, and I feel especially desirous that 'The Phytologist' should 

 become an authority on this point, allow me, through your medium, to ask Mr. Buck- 



