Bibliographical Notices. 123 



out (several useful hints being taken from Hooker and Arnott), 

 and show marks of constant labour in both the field and the study- 

 along with attention to the work of others up to the latest moment. 

 Some persons may perhaps be annoyed at seeing the accounts of a 

 few species, respecting which controversies have lately taken place or 

 strong adverse opmions been expressed, left unchanged : but it is 

 unwise, where grave doubts still exist, to make such alterations as 

 can scarcehj lead the way to fuller knowledge. Mr. Babington has 

 advanced more than a step towards making our lists genuine summa- 

 ries of British vegetation by including in brackets " a considerable 

 number of plants which only occur in the Channel Islands, or there is 

 reason to suppose have never been really detected in Britain ; or have 

 been added to our Flora by previous writers, but are not now to be 

 found ; or, although decidedly naturalized, have very^ slender claims 

 to be considered as aborigmal natives." But the process of purgation 

 must be carried further still and extended to nearly all the plants now 

 marked with an asterisk. It is perhaps better not to banish these 

 excluded species to the limbo of an appendix, but brackets are by no 

 means sufficient to distinguish them from genuine natives : the use of 

 small and msignificant type would probably be the best plan. There 

 would then be room for an increased number of brief notes on plants 

 likely to occur : we cannot think that Mr. Babington has done wisely 

 in cutting them down in this edition. 



It is now time to give a brief account of the principal individual 



changes, premising that neither we nor our readers can be competent 



to judge of the merits of many of them without having seen in Britain 



the plants in question. Two new Thalictra are introduced, T.flexu- 



osum (Reich., Fries) and T. saxatile (D.C.) which is identical with 



T. Kochii (Fries). Ranunculus aquatilis adds R. confusus (Godr.) 



to its already large progeny. Submersed leaves are described for 



both the yellow Water-lUies : we suspect they are known to but few 



botanists, except those whose attention may have been attracted by 



their curious appearance, somewhat like lettuces, at the bottom of 



clear lakes or slow streams. The Fumitory lately described by Mr. 



Babington as F. agraria (Lag.) is referred as a variety to F. capreolata 



in accordance with Dr. Arnott's views : the account of the whole 



genus is remodelled. Nasturtium anceps of the last edition is wisely 



given up. The old arrangement of Brassica and Sinapis is restored. 



The stipulate species of Alsine are transferred, after Hooker and 



Arnott, to ParonychiacecB : the genus so formed is not however 



called Spergularia, but Lepigonum ; and reasonably enough, for the 



former name was originally affixed to a mere sectional division, and 



its generic use is quite recent. Cerastium tetrandrum is allowed to 



be a form, probably a young one, of C. atrovirens, but of course 



Curtis' s name has the priority. Mr. Babington seems to abandon 



the characters drawn from the hypogynous ring in the Gerania ; we 



certainly have found it very variable. TJlex Gallii (Planch.) is still 



kept under U. «««««, but noticed at some length as probably distinct. 



As no allusion is made to the supposed Trifolium striatum of Anglesea, 



mentioned in an early number of the ' Botanical Gazette,' we presume 



