(52. CHENOPODIACEiE. 325 



tinct species. Apparently, the name of A. patula has been 

 used by the authors of local lists and floras indiscriminately 

 for any or all of those alleged species to which Mr. Babing- 

 ton applies the names of prostrata, patula, deltoidea, and 

 microsperma. I am myself quite unable to name the spe- 

 cimens in my own herbarium according to the figures and 

 descrijDtions of Mr. Babington's paper in the Transactions 

 refen-ed to. And on requesting Mr. Babington to tell me 

 his specific name for a common Atriplex of my own neigh- 

 bourhood, m Surrey, he was puzzled by it, and declined to 

 do so. Under these circumstances, it would be a mere 

 pretence of science to attempt to give the distribution of 

 the several supposed species apart from each other. In- 

 deed, it would not be very difficult to mate four dozens of 

 species on paper, instead of four only, by going to work in 

 Mr. Babington's method ; that is to say, by selecting two 

 or three leaves and two or three calyces from different 

 plants, to be figured on paper and contrasted against each 

 other. I could make contrasts on paper, between leaves 

 and calyces taken from one single plant, quite as strong as 

 are some of those put forth by the botanist mentioned, as 

 specific distinctions or differences. Still, I am much in- 

 clined to believe, with Mr. Babington, that the name of A. 

 patula, as here applied, does include two or three different 

 species, although I am not certain that one of them is 

 equally distinct also from the A. erecta of Hudson. 



^/^.//V/, /-^hvl. (o^^ 



/ 



^ 9f. 922, b. Atriplex angustifolia, Sm. 



Area general ? 



South limit in Cornwall, Isle of Wight, Kent. 



North limit in Shetland, Hebrides, ? 



Estimate of provinces 18. Estimate of counties 80. 



