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No. 63 contains one botanical article, intituled : — 

 ' Observations on the Genus Schwenkia ; by John Miers, Esq.' 

 Also the continuation of Mr. Clarke's paper, and an extract from the 

 ^ Gardener's Chronicle,' ' On the Structure of the Cells of Plants.' 

 This is a double number, containing 102 pages, and is charged 5s. 



The botanical papers in No. 64 are intituled : — 



* Remarks upon British Plants; by Charles C. Babington, M.A., 

 F.R.S., F.L.S., &c.' 



' On the Germination of the Resting Spores, and on a Form of the 

 Moving Spores in Spirogyra ; by Dr. W. Pringsheim.' Translated 

 from the ' Flora,' of August, 1852. 



Mr. Babington's paper is of great interest, and has already been 

 noticed in these pages, in our report of the Proceedings of the Bota- 

 nical Society of Edinburgh. The genera of which the author treats 

 are Thalictrura and Polygala. 



In the third edition of his * Manual,' Mr. Babington gives six Bri- 

 tish species of Thalictrum :— 1. alpinum (2. minus; 3. flexuosum ; 

 4. saxatile ; 5. majos) ; 6. flavum. In the sixth edition of the 'Bri- 

 tish Flora,' the learned authors reduce these to three ; uniting, under 

 the name of minus, the four above-mentioned species which we have 

 included in parentheses : but this step seems rather the result of non- 

 acquaintance with the plants, than of a careful investigation and com- 

 parison of their characters ; for the authors merely assert, under T. 

 minus, that " T. saxatile, Kochii, flexuosum, and several others, are 

 mere forms of this;" — a mode of dismissing a difficult subject, that 

 will scarcely be held satisfactory. 



Mr. Babington, having recently obtained extended materials, and 

 being assisted by the acute judgment of Mr. Hort, whose botanical 

 acumen has long been familiar to the readers of the ' Phytologist,' has 

 carefully considered the entire subject, and without acceding to the 

 extreme views entertained by the authors of the ' British Flora,' 

 candidly admits that he now believes the T. majus of his ' Manual ' 

 was " formed out of larger states of each of the others, but especially 

 of T. saxatile and T. flexuosum." The other three species he still 

 retains, giving the subjoined characters and synonyms : — 



Thalictrum. 



"1. T. minus (Linn.) ; stem zigzag striated branched solid lea/less 

 at the base, stipules with imjlexed auricles, leaves 2-3 pinnate, 

 leaflets ternate 3-cleft glaucous, petioles with angular ascending 



