258 Second Annual Report and Proceedings 



remarks are very brief, and the table of his alliances is unaccompanied with 

 any characters. The author has evidently given himself a great deal of 

 trouble with the subject, and his paper, therefore, merits a very careful 

 examination ; but the very first aspect of the table will appear most forbid- 

 ding, and the grouping extremely unnatural." A paper in the Magazine of 

 Natural History, for August [vol. x. p. 421.], on the Propriety of a Descrip- 

 tive Nomenclature, is noticed, with a remark of a similar kind. The following 

 extract is curious : — 



" If I could believe, which I certainly cannot, the transformation of oats 

 into rye, these changes in specific identity would indeed sink into nothing ; 

 but the evidence has accumulated so much round this often-told tale, that it 

 has at last been admitted into a British scientific journal. The subject is 

 noticed in the Magazine of Natural History for November last, and some 

 observations made, in order to rub a little off the jn-im a facie absurdity of the 

 position, and induce a repetition of the experiment. The experiment is a very 

 simple one. It has been asserted during many years, and from various coun- 

 tries, that if oats be cut down repeatedly, so as to prevent their flowering 

 during the year that they are sown, the same roots will next year produce a 

 crop of rye. Mr. Hancock, in the June number of the Magazine of Zoology 

 and Botany, notices the near identity of Tamus communis with Dioscorea, 

 and doubts whether it can be even specifically distinguished from Dioscorea 

 cajanensis." 



Plants which, during the last Year, have been added to the Biitish Flora. — 

 JBetula intermedia, a rare plant on the Jura, and differing essentially from B. 

 alba, has been found on the Clova Mountains. [Not considering B. inter- 

 media as specifically distinct from B. alba, though we allow it to be a good 

 variety, we should feel-much obliged to Colonel Brown (at one time our cor- 

 respondent) for a few seeds.] 



" The necessity of concluding these remarks prevents me doing more than 

 merely referring to the different British periodicals during the last j'ear, for 

 descriptions of a number of highly interesting new plants, by Lindley, Hooker, 

 Arnott, Don, Henslow, and others. The order which, in cultivation, is attract- 

 ing most attention at present, is the Orchideae, and the splendid, grotesque, 

 and innumerable tropical parasitical species which have lately been introduced 

 into our stoves certainly are most attractive. I have always expressed my 

 fears that, attention having only lately been given in earnest to this race, we 

 had not yet acquired that amount of knowledge regarding it which warranted 

 the great subdivision of forms into genera and species, which are daily in the 

 course of publication ; and that these fears were not groundless, is shown by 

 the acknowledgment of Professor Lindley, than whom no one is a more com- 

 petent judge, from the unremitting attention which he has paid to the subject. 

 In April last, he published the figure of a plant which combined in its own 

 person no fewer than three supposed genera, and he winds up his observations 

 with these expressions: — 'The necessary consequence of this is, that the 

 supposed genera Myanthus and Monachanthus must be restored to Catase- 

 tum ; and I have no doubt now, although no proof has been seen of it, that 

 Mormodes must share the same fate ; but which of the species have their 

 masks on, and which show their real faces, I certainly will not, at present, 

 presume to guess.' The important lesson to be learned from this is, that, in 

 little-known tribes, we must accumulate observations before we can be com- 

 petent to form generic or specific characters. With the Orchideae, perhaps, 

 we could scarcely help taking steps prematurely, because these plants were 

 altogether new, and required to be somehow arranged ; but where a station 

 and a name have been already assigned, even obvious, if established, blunders 

 should be allowed to remain for a time, rather than run the risk of multiplying 

 error by premature change." 



The discovery of Victoria regalis is noticed under this head, though the 

 plant cannot be considered as added to the British flora in any sense. "Were 

 we quite certain of its specific identity with Poppig's plant. It would, no 

 doubt, be consistent with strict propriety to restore his specific name, ama- 



