506 REVIEWS. \_April, 



not have crossed the Atlantic and scaled and descended the Scottish 

 mountains on such craft, if its original home be the Canadas. It 

 could not have reached the ponds of Clapham and Wandsworth 

 on the wooden floats, for there are none, nor any water to float 

 them. Have any geographical botanists investigated the ques- 

 tion of its nativity ? Has it a home, or is it like the wise philo- 

 sopher described by Horace, who, when overtaken by the storm, 

 entered wherever he could find an open door, " ubi tempestas rapit 

 deferor hospes." Where was it first seen ? — in Ireland, or Scot- 

 land, or Canada ? Who can tell whether it be a subject of the 

 ancient Scandinavian floral kingdom, or whether it existed in 

 the glacial period ? Is it a new species, — one of Dr. Darwin's 

 proteges? We can answer for its ability to keep its own in the 

 great struggle for existence. It is not very particular about its 

 quarters. Its property is to exterminate every competitor in 

 the life-battle; not to select any of the good qualities to be 

 found in any of its contemporaries, but to kill them all outright, 



M. Crepin's paper professes to be a redaction or adaptation of 

 Mr. Professor Babington's description of this troublesome visi- 

 tant, a paper which was published in Annals and Mag. of Nat. 

 Hist., 1858, p. 81, and Ann. Sc. Nat., 1849, t. 11, p. 66; and 

 of Dr. Caspary's article " Die Hydrilleen," in ' Jahrbiicher fiir 

 Wissenschaftliche Botanik,' 1858, pp. 378, 513 ; Ann. Sc. Nat., 

 1858, t. ix. p. 323, etc. 



Our author^s paper may be considered as a more detailed ac- 

 count, or as an amended description of this curious and strange 

 plant. 



M. Crepin observes, page 9, that Professor Babington and 

 Mr. Salter {gu. the late Dr. Bell Salter?) failed to describe the 

 fourth leaf, in the axil out of which the flower is developed, and 

 also states that Dr. Caspary omits it. " In all the works which I 

 have seen,'^ writes M. Crepin, " the prefoliation and the preflo- 

 ration (the state of the leaf and flower-buds) are not mentioned. 

 The lower leaf of every verticil (whorl) slightly overlaps the 

 borders of its right and left associates ; the latter in its turn 

 slightly overlaps the right hand-one. The third leaf (the whorl 

 rarely consists of more than three leaves) has both its borders 

 slightly overlapped. The flower-bud is, according to this minute 

 observer and scrupidous describer, also imbricated ; or the seg- 

 ments of the perianth overlap each other, as above related ?" 



