284 



Polystichum aculeatum. Cotterrill Wood. 



angulare. In the woods at Marple abundantly. 



■ lohatum. In the same place, and also in Bamford Wood. 



Scolopendrium vulgare. Cotterrill Wood and other places. 



Art. LXXVIII. — Analytical Notice of the 'Transactions of the 

 Botanical Society.'' Vol. i. pt. i. Edinburgh : MachlachlaUj 

 Stewart, & Co. ; H. Bailliere, London ; Smith & Son, Glasgow; 

 W. Curry, jun. & Co. Dublin ; J. B. Bailliere, Paris ; J. A. G. 

 Weigel, Leipzig. 1841. 



I. — Monograph of the British Atripliceee. By Charles C. Babington, M.A., 

 F.L.S., F.B.S., F.G.S., &c. 



" Much difficulty attends the determination of the species in the genus Atriplex, 

 owing to the great tendency of some of their parts to become disproportionally en- 

 larged when the plants are growing upon a richer soil than that to which they are ac- 

 customed. The leaves become thick and fleshy, and their form so much changed as 

 nearly to obliterate the characters drawn from their shape and outline of margin ; an 

 erect plant may become prostrate, or a slender and elegant one maybe so much thic k- 

 ened, and so irregularly swollen in some or all of its parts, as scarcely to be identified 

 by any person who has not made these plants his peculiar study. It must therefore be 

 manifest that, in determining the species, those specimens should be selected for exa- 

 mination which are least affected by these changes. This is more particularly requi- 

 site in considering the calyx and fruit ; for in almost all the species a few of the calyces 

 upon an individual are often very much enlarged and even become foliaceous, in which 

 cases the fruit, if produced at all, is much larger than in the neighbouring calyces 

 which are of the usual size, and the seed is often tuberculated and opaque, when its 

 being smooth and shining is characteristic of the species. It is probable that these 

 unnaturally enlarged fruits are monstrosities, and would not germinate. These chan- 

 ges are generally the result of extreme luxuriance, caused by the plants growing upon 

 richly manured soil or the muddy sea-shore, when their natural locality is waste land, 

 or the shingly or rocky beach." — p. 5. 



The author remarks that he has ventured on the attempt to elucidate 

 the species belonging to this tribe, " only after a careful and long-con- 

 tinued study of the living plants : " and that it is probable that many 

 even of our most eminent botanists will say — " if the plants are in- 

 deed of so very variable a character as is represented in this paper, 

 and the distinctions between them so uncertainly defined, they ought 

 not to be divided to so great an extent, and that several of the species 

 which I consider as distinct, must be looked upon as only forms of 

 variable plants." 



