677 



all the paper changed, and half the weight or less applied for two or 

 three days : no more changing is necessary, and in a week at most 

 from the time of gathering the plants will be found to be perfectly 

 dry. If any one would import the thick coarse paper used by Ger- 

 man botanists for drying plants, and which we here never see unless 

 coming with plants from that country, it would be conferring a great 

 boon on British botanists, for the great superiority of the German 

 specimens is evidently greatly owing to the superior paper for drying 

 which they possess. I made a trial of this paper among some experi- 

 ments instituted on the drying of plants last summer, and I found they 

 dried in half the time required for those preserved with the common 

 kind of paper. In conclusion, I would beg to caution inexperienced 

 botanists against using hot water in the preparation of Sedums, Agra- 

 phis, and other siicculent plants, or indeed for any specimens what- 

 ever, for, however well they may look, they are entirely useless as 

 specimens, for the hot water utterly spoils the character of the plant, 

 it being impossible to dissect and analyse them, and, unless pasting 

 plants on the walls of rooms comes into fashion, I am quite at a loss 

 to conceive the use of it : by proper care and attention to having the 

 plants quite dry before committing them to press, specimens may be 

 preserved frilly as beautifully, and infinitely more usefully than by the 

 hot-water cure. — Id. 



340. Note on Cerastium latifoUum. I am sorry to find that Mr. 

 Watson (Phytoh 586) does not agree with my views of the Ce- 

 rastium described by me, (Id. 495), I am also sorry to find Mr. W. 

 confining his remarks to the least important point characterized, viz. 

 the form of the leaves, and the sum of the proof seems to be brought 

 from a garden specimen : all the characters derived from the length 

 of the peduncles, the bractese, sepals, capsule, pubescence, &c., are 

 dismissed without comment ; Mr. W. merely saying " that the other 

 characters appear as little constant as those taken from the leaves." 

 Now having examined such a multitude of specimens from different 

 stations, collected at different times, I feel convinced I am correct in 

 saying that the characters I have given are really constant : they are 

 such as are employed, without a doubt, in distinguishing other species 

 of Cerastium, and better will rarely be got among the Caryophyllese. 

 The main point urged by Mr. W. is, that cultivated specimens of the 

 Scotch " C. alpinum and C. latifolium bear leaves equally short, broad 

 and obtuse," as those I have figured belonging to my C. latifolium. 

 Now every botanist knows that plants removed from their native 

 juountains to a garden, can never be depended on for retaining their 



