Miscellaneous. 461 



sembles the larger Otter iu dentition, colour, and shape, but is of 

 more slender structure, and possesses marked diflferences in the pro- 

 portion of the coronoid bone. He has, besides, distinct habits and 

 modes of hfe, especially in his search for sustenance, which, I think, 

 altogether entitles us to consider him as specifically distinct from the 

 Lutra canadensis." 



On two Forms of Anthriscus sylvestris. 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. 



On the banks of the Thames, between Kew and Richmond, there 

 are now to be seen growing in abundance, side by side, so close to- 

 gether that their leaves are often to be seen intermixed, two very 

 distinct forms of Anthriscus sylvestris : at least, I consider they 

 are both that plant, as I cannot find any character in the flower, the 

 fruit, or the leaves by which I can separate them. 



One is a large succulent plant, of a bright, rather palish green 

 colour, much branched, and with large broad leaves ; the stem is 

 thick, and has a few large ridges, and the flowers are rather large. 

 The other is a slender rigid-stemmed plant, with comparatively few 

 and distant branches, and comparatively few and smaller leaves. 

 The stem has many small, subequai ridges. The stem and fohage 

 are always dark, and generally of a more or less purple shade ; but 

 1 have seen a few plants in which the stem and leaves were dark 

 green. 



These differences cannot arise from soil or any difference of ex- 

 ternal circumstances, such as situation, exposure, &c., as they grow 

 side by side, and come into flower at the same time. 



I have observed a similar fact, but one not so strongly marked, of 

 two forms growing side by side and flowering at the same period, in 

 the Wood-Anemone (Anemone nemorosa), which I described a short 

 time ago. 



Now, I wish some of your readers would explain to me, by any of 

 the modem or ancient theories of the origin of species, what we are 

 to learn from the existence of two forms of the same species in the 

 same locality, under the same circumstances, and occurring at the 

 same time. They cannot be regarded as varieties produced by soil 

 or external circumstances, or any of the other conditions that are 

 supposed to cause variation in species ; and yet they are not species 

 as we commonly regard species, though, if such specimens were col- 

 lected in a foreign country, and only examined from the specimen in 

 an herbarium, one might be inclined to regard them as aUied species 

 or very distinct varieties. 



I do not find the two forms of this plant noticed in any of the 

 English works on botany, nor in any of the floras of France or Ger- 

 many that occur to me. 



Indeed, what a wonderful thing it is to consider how plants of the 

 same kind flower at the same period ! how one week the banks of 

 the railways are covered with one, and then with another kind, all the 

 plants of each in bloom at once, and that the different species follow 

 one after the other in the same succession year after year — varying. 



