Mr. C. C. Babington on the Batrachian Ranunculi. 387 



the supposed connecting links are single specimens of distinct 

 species, which consist of multitudes of similar individuals in their 

 native districts, although only one or two may have been pre- 

 served in the herbarium employed for study. Let the living 

 plants be carefully examined in a country, such as Britain, where 

 they are numerous, and if, after an unprejudiced endeavour to 

 arrive at the truth, they prove undistinguishable, then let them 

 be combined. But if, as my observations lead me to believe, the 

 best known of them are quite constant in their form and habit, 

 it does not seem to be the pursuit of truth that leads to their 

 neglect, but rather the adherence to a preconceived theory. Take 

 as an example the R. circinatus : this plant inhabits the most 

 different situations, growing upon a muddy or gravelly bottom, 

 in swift streams or stagnant ditches and pits, in water or on 

 mud, and yet the well-known structure of its leaves is invariable. 

 Many years since it fell to my lot to attempt to controvert the 

 opinion then prevalent in England, that the R. aquatilis, R. cir- 

 cinatus and R.fiuitans formed one species (Ann. Nat. Hist. Ser. 1. 

 vol. iii. p. 225-230), and I showed conclusively, as I venture to 

 think, that the depth, motion, or stagnancy of the water in 

 which they grow has nothing whatever to do with the size, 

 shape or structure of the leaves, nor with the direction of them. 

 Of course certain slight alterations are the result of the circum- 

 stances in which the plants are placed, but they are not such as 

 to affect the characters upon which the species ai"e founded. In 

 doing this I was performing little more than restoring to recog- 

 nition in this country species known to Bay, and defined and 

 named according to the Linnsean method by Sibthorp. On the 

 European continent several eminent men had already adopted 

 them. Since that date my attention has been often turned 

 towards these beautiful plants, and during the last few years I 

 have made them a special subject of study. ^>Vithin the same 

 period, such men as Fries, Koch, Godron, Cosson and others, 

 have been led to think that the R. aquatilis required further sub- 

 division. Accordingly many attempts have been made to do so 

 with greater or less success, and it is a cause of much satis- 

 faction to me to find that, with a single exception, the British 

 species have already been detected and described in other coun- 

 tries. That those botanists should have arrived at different conclu- 

 sions, and even changed their opinions once or more, is certainly 

 not a valid excuse for neglecting the study in which they have 

 partially failed ; for in this, as in all other departments of know- 

 ledge, correct results are not usually attained until after many 

 attempts. Let it not be thought from these remarks that I 

 claim to have succeeded ; for all that I propose to myself is to 



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