1859] First Year of Critical Botany. 103 



with Yarrell that the line of autumnal migration might 

 lie, " to a great extent, at right angles to the isotherms of 

 winter temperature," was tentatively put forward in this 

 essay, which he hoped some day to follow up by a much 

 more elaborate one. But as time went by, he gradually 

 let "that isocheimonal matter" drop. 



It was at this time that his correspondence with Pro- 

 fessor Babington, from an occasional interchange of letters, 

 became regular and frequent. Quite a trivial incident 

 served to place it on a new footing. On May 4th, Pro- 

 fessor Babington wrote to thank him for a copy of the new 

 "Catalogue of the Plants of the Isle of Wight/' and in 

 doing so asked him for a few growing plants (when in 

 flower) of Cerastium tetrandrum and C. semidecandrum, 

 the petals of which Air. Newbould and he wished to 

 examine. The plants were sent they grew abundantly 

 on St. Helen's Spit, and from their early-flowering habit 

 had long been favourite "old season-marks" and some 

 letters followed discussing the petals, the great question 

 being whether those of C. semidecandrum were distin- 

 guishable by absence of ribs. Professor Babington at 

 first was inclined to think they were so. But, on June yth, 

 he wrote to his friend at Bembridge : "You have shown 

 successfully that there are ribs on the petals of all our 

 smaller species, and I am much obliged to you for so 

 doing." From this date More had, as he briefly puts it 

 in his Journal, " gained the confidence of C. C. B." 



In June he spent some days at Thames Ditton with 

 Mr. H. C. Watson. 



The rest of the year was spent at home, except that 

 towards the end of August, he enjoyed a short excursion, 

 in the company of a few friends, to the Channel Islands. 

 Their plans had included a visit to the coast of Brittany ; 

 but stormy weather prevailed, and they got no further 

 than Guernsey, where, after a stay of four days (August 

 30th-Sept. 2nd), it was deemed advisable, on the first 

 abatement of the gale, to return to England. In the four 

 days spent in Guernsey, a good number of maritime and 

 Sarnian plants were collected. The caves yielded Asple- 

 nium lanceolatum ; the sandy shores, Polygonum mariti- 



