1863.] REVIEWS. 407 



it to this high pre-eminence ? And wherein consists the inferio- 

 rity of L. puhens, that it should be consigned to obscurity ? 



Are there gradations in typical rank ? Do some individuals 

 approach nearer to an ideal type than others do ? 



Are all types ideal, both perfect, less perfect, and abnormal 

 types? Are the descriptions of genera, species, etc., drawn 

 up from individuals or from the imagination? Are types really 

 natural existing things or poetic inventions, realities or imagi- 

 nary creations, facts or fancies ? What is the history of this 

 term, ' type ' ? When was it introduced ? Is it connected with 

 the new science, ethnology ? What are the synonyms of 'type ' ? 

 What is its value, or import, or meaning, in the vocabulary of 

 botanists ? 



Page 62 contains a notice of the discovery of Artemisia cam- 

 phoi'cita by one of our fair correspondents. See ' Phytologist ' 

 for December, 1861, No. 80. 



Crepis nicceensis, a species new to Belgium, may possibly turn 

 up in such places as Battersea, Wandsworth, or Kew Bridge. 

 Some two years ago a very large form of Crepis biennis sprang up 

 hortulo in nostra CheJseyano, and the same was detected among a 

 lot of specimens collected at Kew Bridge, a place notoriously sus- 

 picious. Our garden example did not originate in that quarter. 



Bromus paiulus, a Grass frequently seen at Wandsworth in 

 former years, but not to be found there now, is another of the 

 recently detected plants of Belgium. 



B. arvensis, M, Crepin remarks, has often, in Belgium, been 

 mistaken for B, patulus, and it is not vei'y improbable that in 

 England B. secalinus has been occasionally mistaken for B. 

 squarrosus, a south of Europe species. 



In order to assist our readers in determining this plant, B. 

 patulus, viz. such of them as have no good descriptions or figures 

 of the species, we quote the following distinctive marks from M. 

 Crepin' s ' Notes,' p. 75 : — 



" The panicle of E. patulus always inclines or droops to one side ; its 

 branches are very slender and flexible. The spikelets are larger than in 

 B. arvensis ; the glumes are broader, and more closely imbricated, even at 

 maturity, than they are in the other; the upper gluraelle is sensibly shorter 

 than the lower one; the awns are longer, always twisted and divaricate 

 (divergent) in clear warm days, seldom erect, or but slightly spreading; 

 its anthers arc very short. Note. The awns are long in B. arvensis. 



