807 



morally wrong, is, in a scientific point of view, highly reprehensible, 

 as creating confusion in Vegetable Geography, by registering false 

 stations, and cruelly misleading the working botanist by inducing a 

 belief of his having found that which, unless spontaneously presenting 

 itself to his observation, is, to say the least, utterly worthless as an 

 object for examination and record. Having committed this misde- 

 meanour, I feel bound to make the only reparation the act admits of, 

 in a voluntary confession of guilt, and to assure Mr. Gibson that with 

 this single exception, all the remaining, and to me most familiar loca- 

 lities, mentioned in his list, are, to the best of my belief, truly the ap- 

 pointment of Nature, — at all events, I can honestly declare they are 

 none of my making. — Wm, Arnold Bromjield ; Ryde, Isle of Wightj 

 November 1, 1843. 



402. Note on the New Cuscuta. Dr. Lindley presents his compli- 

 ments to the Editor of ' The Phytologist,' and begs to acquaint him 

 that the matter at p. 756, headed a " New Agi-icultural Pest," and 

 quoted from the ' Ten Towns' Messenger,' was stolen from the co- 

 lumns of the * Gardeners' Chronicle,' where it formed a leading article 

 on the 9th of September. — Gardener's Chroiiicle Office^ 3, Charles 

 St., Covent Garden^Novemher 3, 1843. 



403. A few words more on the Habitats of Equisetum Telmateia. 

 Probably I have one blunder to answer for here, in common with the 

 other parties who have sent notes on the subject to the pages of 'The 

 Phytologist,' — namely, that of overlooking the proper inference from 

 certain facts which conflict, perhaps, only while not clearly under- 

 stood. Mr. Newman appears to have given the true explanation, in 

 saying that " closeness and compactness of soil " are unfavourable. 

 The watery situations in which 1 have seen the plant growing, were 

 most (if not all) of them loosely muddy. The avoided watery situa- 

 tions, as described, were apparently of an opposite character. Seve- 

 ral of the dry situations in which it is stated to grow, are upon loose 

 earth or rubbish-heaps. Some of the habitats are in woods ; and the 

 soil in woods is often made very loose and porous by the decay of ve- 

 getable matter, the boring of worms attracted by the dead leaves, and 

 the digging of moles in pursuit of worms. I beg, however, to add, 

 that the tendency of my own remark on the subject, was to show that 

 the plant did not shun water. My own opportunities had led me to 

 agree with the desciiptions of watery localities in many local Floras, 

 and with the ideas suggested by the specific names given to the plant. 

 But I may freely confess now, that the reports of various botanists in 

 ' The Phytologist,' have fully satisfied me about the plant growing 



