33 



give each, sub-species a separate number, and when in doubt 

 give the sub-species the benefit of the doubt." Now this might 

 have been all very well if these " sub-species " had been labelled 

 as such ; but on the face of the Catalogue there is nothing to 

 deter a simple youth from supposing that each of them differs as 

 widely from his neighbours on either side as, let us say, a 

 delicious Hautbois from a common Bramble. And, therefore, if, 

 in the politics of Macedon, it was allowable to appeal from 

 Philip drunk to Philip sober, we may surely follow an analogous 

 rule in the matter of our English Flora. 



The groups in which the widest differences of nomenclature 

 are found are the Hieracia, the Willows, the Brambles, and the 

 Water Ranunculus. Beginning with the Brambles, the species 

 now given in the London Catalogue are copied from Professor 

 Babington's elaborate work on the "British Hubi." The species 

 thus taken are 44 in number. In Mr. Bentham's work there are 

 on ly 5 hi s Eubus fruticosus including the other 39. But a 

 foreign botanist, M. Grenevier, has persuaded himself that the 

 forms or species of Rubus, to be found in the valley of the 

 Loire, are not less than 203. Now, what does Mr. Watson him- 

 self tell us in his Compendium ? After confessing that 

 ' ' botanists are not held in over-reverence by the outer world, 

 and that collectors of Brambles are often rated very low, even 

 by botanists," he thus disposes of the Professor: 



"Professor Babington writes, p. 22: "I believe in the 

 distinctness of species, although unable to demonstrate it." But 

 in whose species of Rubi are iv e to believe ? In the 200 of M. 

 Grenevier ? In the two score of Professor Babington ? In the 

 two units of fruticosus and coesius of Mr. Bentham's hand- 

 book?" (p. 504). 



With this may be given a paragraph from a review of the 

 Professor's work in the Journal of Botany for October, 1869 : 



" We cannot see that the 203 species in the one case [M. 

 Q-enevier] individualized and defined in perfect good faith, as 

 the deliberate result of the labour of many years, cover a wider 



