Miscellaneous. 147 



anywhere adopted. In the index to the Atheneeum Journal for 1 837, 

 p. vii, under the head Botanical Society, occurs, " Schomburgk on 

 the Victoria regia, p. 661," which is evidently an error of the press, 

 as the name in the page referred to is V. Regina, 



Shortly after the appearance of the description and figure in the 

 ' Annals of Zoology and Botany,' and after Sir William Jardine had 

 returned them, Capt. Washington, R.N., then Secretarj^ of the Geo- 

 graphical Society, borrowed from the Botanical Society the original 

 description and drawing of the plant made by Mr. Schomburgk, with 

 the intention of their appearing in the Journal of the Geographical 

 Society with Mr. Schomburgk's Journal of his Travels. Instead of this 

 being done, the papers found their way into the hands of Dr. Lindley, 

 who printed for private distribution twenty-five copies of an essay on 

 this plant, entirely derived from Mr. Schomburgk's paper, and illus- 

 trated with highly embellished copies of Schomburgk's drawing. In 

 the essay he adopted the view which had been stated before the Bota- 

 nical Society and British Association, that it formed a genus inter- 

 mediate between Eunjale and Nymphcea (see Bot. Reg. 1838, p. 11), 

 but he called the plant Victoria regia, thus continuing the error of 

 the printer of the ' Athenseum.' 



In Miscellaneous Notices attached to the ' Botanical Register ' for 

 1838, p. 9-18, Dr. Lindley having been enabled to examine a spe- 

 cimen of the flower in a bad state, which Mr. Schomburgk had sent 

 home in salt, gave some further details, and for the first time pub- 

 lished an account of the plant under the above name, and this name 

 has been adopted by several succeeding botanists, who have quoted 

 it as V. regia of Lindley. I think, however, that this account proves 

 that the name of Victoria Regina, which received the sanction of Her 

 Majesty, was the one first used and pubhshed, and has the undoubted 

 right of priority ; and I must add, as a personal disclaimer, that I have 

 always considered that both the generic and the specific name pro- 

 perly belonged to Mr. (now Sir Robert) Schomburgk, for it was he 

 who proposed that the plant should be dedicated to the Queen ; and 

 the slight alteration made in his paper before it was read at the Bo- 

 tanical Society, was caused by our having the means of comparison 

 in London which he had not at Berbice, and was regarded by me as a 

 simple act of friendship, such as was due to a person in his situation. 

 In fact the alteration would never have been made public, if the ori- 

 ginal manuscripts of Mr. Schomburgk had not been allowed to pass 

 out of the possession of the Botanical Society, to whom they were 

 sent. 



On the Organization of the Malacobdellae. 

 By M. Emile Blanchard. 



The Malacobdellce, which belong to the group of the Class Vermes, 

 have sometimes been arranged in one division of this class, sometimes 

 in another ; Milne-Edwards has endeavoured to determine the exact 

 place they should occupy. 



In a previous memoir published in 1845, M. Emile Blanchard had 



