82 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
and one from North Staffordshire (H. cymbifolium) were the sole 
plants he described. Both of these have stood the test of later 
criticism. 
Roses became a favourite dag with Mr. Purchas, especially in 
the later years of his life, when his lot was cast in a district where 
the bleak uplands of the Peak break away into deep glens, a country 
rich in roses, but poor in brambles. It is a mentee of regret that he 
did not earlier and more actively take up the study of the rose-forms 
of this district, and do something to reduce to order the mollis- 
tomentosa group, for which science ‘would have been grateful. He 
was always dissatisfied with Mr. J. G. Baker’s ingenious arrange- 
ment of Rusa canina, seo it too oar aa and ais frequently 
and ent a owt th. 
On the puzzling forms of the genus Epipactis Mr. Purchas 
thought ‘eid observed much; see his remarks upon the so-called 
Herefordshire F. ovalis Bab. in Fl. Heref. p. 298. One of his 
favourite studies was the /luitans- sorta section of Glyceria; a 
variety described by him without a name in the Phytologist (iil. 
736 ae was the plant since known as "6. slain Towns. 
In 1895 Mr. Purchas began publishing in Science Gossip a series 
of papers on the ‘‘ Characteristic Branching of British Forest Trees,” 
which work a vein of observation hitherto neglected by botanists ; 
these papers merit perhaps more attention than has been bestowed 
upon them 
It was due in part to the modesty of Mr. Purchas that observa- 
tions of his of real scientific value were never recorded—such as the 
an occasional contributor to the Botanical Gazette, 
1849-1851; the Phytologist, Old Series, vols. ii.-iv.; the Journal 
of Botany, 1865- 1895 ; and to Science oneiy, 1895. — also = 
tributed to Watson’s Topographical Botany. Numerous notes 0 
plants contributed by him to the London Botanical iinkanbe Club 
appear in the Reports of that Club. His collections will be offered 
to the British Museum. Aveustin Ley. 
NOTES ON DIANTHUS.. 
By Epmunp G. Baxer, F.L.S. 
In the course of rearranging the genus Dianthus in the N ational 
Palisa in accordance with Mr. F. N. Williams’s Monograph 
(Journ. Linn. Soc. xxix. pp. 8346-478), I have made the following 
notes, whieh may be worth while placing on record. 
D. rerrueinevs Miller, Gard. Dict. ed. viii. no. 9 (1768); Linn. 
Mant. 568 (1771), 
