2l6 BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS 



However great the merit of such exertions when 

 properly applied, it should always be remem- 

 bered, that the Examination of a plant, to ascer- 

 tain whether it be a species or variety, ought 

 to be made in its natural situation, and never from 

 specimens preserved in herbariums. The dubious 

 plants should not only be observed in different 

 soils, but also in the different regions of air, 

 which a mountain traverses, or through which a 

 whole tract of ( Country, with all its diversity of 

 soil, adscends, to see whether or not they will 

 retain their distinguishing characters in the com- 

 bination of many different circumstances. I shall 

 here communicate some cases, in which this care- 

 ful examination has been neglected, and species 

 have been established, which, according to my 

 own observation, are mere varieties. 



I. Orobus tenuifoliis Roth Beytr. Zur Bot. I. 



p. 78. n. 7. Ejusd. fl. Germ. I. p. 305. & 



II. 2, p. 170. 

 Orobus pannonicus Jacq^ Vind, Fl. p. 128, 

 Orobus austriacus Crantz Stir p. Amtr, p. 374, 



tab. 1. fig. 1. 



