ADDITIONAL SPECIES, ETC. 337 



Babington to give me his aid here, in the form of a list of 

 provinces or counties for the several species described in 

 the third edition of the Manual of British Botany. This 

 request he has very obligingly met ; and the list of species, 

 with their j)rovinces and counties is copied below, pre- 

 ceded by some explanatory observations which accompa- 

 nied the list.— (H. C. W.) ' 



{Mr. Babington' s Distribution of Rubi.) 



" This sketch of the distribution of the Rubi can only 

 be considered as a very incomplete outline of the reality. 

 It is the fii'st attempt that has been made to show to what 

 extent each so-called species is spread throughout Great 

 Britain. Owing to the peculiar diflficulty which attends 

 the study of brambles and the consequent uncertainty of 

 the names given to them by botanists and collectors, the 

 reception of records of localities has been obliged to be 

 restricted to those derived from a very few competent 

 authorities ; and, since the continued study of the plants 

 by the botanists referred to has recently led to a rather 

 extensive change in our views concerning them, it is 

 necessary to neglect several of the earlier lists although 

 they were drawn up by persons who, both then and now, 

 cannot but be considered as competent. It has also re- 

 sulted from the difficulty of correctly naming these plants 

 that botanists have often omitted to gather and preserve 

 specimens of them, and that, therefore, parts of the island 

 have scarcely a species recorded as native to them. The 

 provinces numbered 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 are imperfectly 

 known ; but of the Rubi belonging to 1, 9, 11, 17, 18, 19 

 and 20, we are nearly altogether ignorant. In some cases, 

 such as many of the Welsh counties, the Rubi only suffer 

 neglect in common with all the other native plants, but in 



VOL. III. 2 X 



