1862.] EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE. 271 



The above extract is a conclusive proof of one thing, namely^ 

 that the professor was not a prophet, for the natural system 

 has long completely superseded the artificial, at least in Eugland 

 and Germany ; and possibly is evidence of a second, namely, that 

 the British botanists of the present day want to find several 

 things which are 7iot to be found in the three works quoted 

 above. 



The reflective will say, How transitory is fame when it is 

 founded on mere science! Sir J, E. Smith's great work, 'On 

 the Plants of our Native Island,' had not been completed 

 ten years, ere the British botanist had his attention solicited 

 by other works, which have long superseded the now obsolete 

 volumes of the learned author of the ' English Flora.' Sic transit 

 bota^iicorum gloria. The fame even of botanists is not sempi- 

 ternal ; it does not last for ever. 



EXTRACTS FEOM COREESPONDENCE. 



August 7th, 1862. 



In the Botanical Garden of Rouen I saw the other day (July 

 18, 1862,) a hybrid between the Petunia and the Nicotiana 

 Tabacwn ; and in the same place a magnificent example of Mullein^ 

 labelled V. Lychnitis, of which the leaves were like those of the 

 Lychnitis, but the spike of flowers like those of thapsiforme, 

 but much larger. The gardener told me he had gathered the plant 

 (I presume the seeds of the original plant) at Dieppe Salle, where 

 the true, small-flowered, pale- white plant grows ; and that it had 

 improved by cultivation. I have no doubt it had hybridized with 

 the thapsiforme. If it bears ripe seeds, I will send you some 

 of the seeds. 



I hope you will try the experiment of the Centaurea seeds, as 

 I shall be curious to know if you get the nigra or the rayed 

 variety. My garden is not a proper place to try the experiment 

 in, as I have so many different sorts of Centaureas. — E. M. A. 



Trifolium repens. — White Clover. 



Considerable doubts have arisen about the originality of the 

 above plant in Ireland (see ' Phytologist,' vol. vi. p. 64, number 



