100 CONTRIBUTIONS TO A FLORA OF PORTLAND. 



Annals and Magazine of Natural History (d) a Paper on the 

 British species of Plumbaginacese ; in that Paper he shortly 

 described Girard's plant, and cited for it four localities in Eng - 

 land and Wales. But Limonium is a protean and remarkably 

 puzzling genus, and, 11 years later, Babington altered his 

 opinion and stated (e) that, having seen a specimen of the true 

 French Dodartii, he now considered the plants from the four 

 localities referred to, to belong not to Dodartii, but to the 

 allied species Statice occidentalis, Lloyd, now generally 

 known as Limonium binervosum, C. E. Salmon. But, 

 unfortunately, he added a dictum which has caused scientists 

 much confusion and trouble. He argued that, anyhow, 

 S. Dodartii should be restored as a British plant, remarking, 

 " There has long been an unnamed specimen of Statice in my 

 herbarium which Avas gathered at Portland, Dorset, in 

 September, 1832, by Professor Henslow. This is quite similar 

 to the authentic S. Dodartii supplied to me by Billot, agrees 

 well with Girard's description, and is of a very different aspect 

 from any state of 8. occidentalis." As a matter of fact, 

 however, the Portland plant and S. Dodartii differ 

 materially (/). 



On the strength of this misleading statement of Babington 

 and in deference to his high authority, the Portland plant 

 continued, wrongly, to appear hi our text books, including 

 the standard work, Syme's Eng. Bot., Ed. 3, as Dodartii, 

 Gir, until the publication of Mr. Salmon's Paper eight years 

 ago. 



It may be useful to field botanists to add that, as is well 

 pointed out by Mr. Salmon, the descriptions of Dodartii given 

 by Hooker, Babington, and Syme, although misleading as 

 regards true Dodartii, fit the Portland plant perfectly 

 well. 



(d) 2nd Series, Vol. III., 433 (1849). 



(e) I.e., Vol. 6, 402. 



(/) Henslow's plant, still preserved at Cambridge, is actually 

 Limonium binervosum, Salmon. 



