336 EXTINCT SPECIES. [November, 



'-'f>8 r 



follows ; the cultivator sows seeds of the red, white, or grey Cab- 

 bage, of the Savoy, of the curly Scotch Kale, or of Brussels 

 Sprouts, or even of Brocoli and Cauliflower, and bis seeds prol- 

 duce, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred', 'plants which possess 

 the qualities of their parents. . ^ r 



The cereals are quite as permanent as t\\e'B)^as^eairmi. o"^> 

 Scientific systcmatists call all these permanent vaHeties ' ra6e'^^' 

 and expect that the unscientific observer should be content with 

 a name without a definitiori arid a' history;'' If races reproduce 

 themselves without variety, what, it may humbly be asked, 

 is the essential distinction between a race and a species? A 

 variety, we are taught, Hai''-a'1;6tid'^rit;y't(b.''i^t(irh' to the original 

 type or state; and this is one of the means on whicb botanists 

 rely to test the validity of species. Why are not races called 

 species, as they possess distinctive characters whereby their 

 owners and cultivators distinguish' them, and they are perma- 

 nent or quite as constant as species are ? Is there nothing to be 

 learned from this fact?^^" ^^ ^""""^^ ^^"^^' «^ '^^"/'" '^^ • ^^''^j"^ 

 Has the Crambe any hipef claims 'to 'the'tltt^'df^Tporitaia'Sote 

 and native than the Brassica has ? They are both maritime spe- 

 cies, and require the sfea aii- and the ^alt^pray^m-de^tio produce 

 them naturally. The Jersey Cabbage, which' attains a' height of 

 Several yards in the moist climate of the Channel Islands, becomes 

 l^liumble plant of a foot or twb'Mgh iiHri^larid situatiom^;\ ';'-^\\^'^ 

 '■^'Diotis maritima, one of the presumed "extinct Essex plafits, is 

 'iiot increasing on our shores. It loves the more brilliant coasts 

 of Southern Europe, Greece, Italy, Spainy and the Mediter- 

 ranean. It is one of the children of the South, and probably got 

 a settlement on the borders of our misty isles before the esta- 

 lishment of the coastguai'di ^ the' pi-eVentive ^t*l^vice of the author 

 of the ' Cybele.' This very rar^ southern species Is ib be deemed 

 very lucky in escaping that limbo of British pMntsy the expur- 

 gatorial lists appended to the'^-IJondon Oatalogue;^ii ^^^ ot.,- 



The two Epping Forest Vacciniums may be redisttbfvered; Has 

 the forest been the residence t)f any obsel'vant local botanist 

 sin'(^^Mr:'E'.'^?bi-ster''^'deeeiise?''"^ -^ 1^"'^-^' J^^^f'^^ Jnaniu-^'i/; 



Tlie-sa'tu'e h6pe^ litay ratioriaWy^W %riMPtfiin'ed'*ibdut>^thfer'ii>&o 

 missing Orchids. The authors will see iri'thte"/ (Phytologist ' 

 notices'" kboiit'thfe' reappearance of these plMtsiiisiJother places 

 after having beeh'WisSihg above half a'-ceutitfyio a on yijj jijxIj 

 r\."A /.v> NAOivru>\ \>\.vu«r<1 ob Q'lodfJ 



1.. i; .IV .jov .3./ 



