148 PROF. HENSLOW ON ‘‘ ENVIRONMENT,” 
In my Kerry Notes, Journ. Bot. 1890, p. 111, I have recorded 
the finding of Polygonum arifolium near Baie rrynane. e pric 
i oer in question should have been called P. sagittifolium, and 
not P. arifolium, which has smooth stems, &c. 
My anks are again due to Mr. Axthe Bennett, Messrs. Groves, 
and Mr. A. G. More, for their kindness in looking over some 
doubtful plants. 
PROF. HENSLOW ON “ENVIRONMENT.” 
By tue Epiror. 
Tue Rev. Prof. tN in the April poral of Nature Notes, 
aa forward the theory of “environment” an ‘origin of 
ecies.” ‘All I fill for is,” he says, diag characters which 
botanists seize upon by which they recognise varieties or species, se 
due to the response of the individual to.its environment”; a 
on aoe os “ina cannot be eager from the former.” 
his 
Prof. Hiicsiow patna the book-char elas of certain allied species, 
é.g., of Salix herbacea and S. reticulata, and points out that these 
: Centaurium is a s “Which appears to perplex 
ooker made four Pabsteaiss; while Babington makes 
five species, [Nyman] seven. Of Hooker’s subspeci 
latifolia, he records ‘shores near Liverpool’ as a locality ; a 
chloodes, a variety of the subsp. littoralis, is found on ‘sandy shore 
variety 
N. to Eng : Subsp. Agena is found on ‘ sandy ground ri 
Dumfri addin thward,’ while var. F. tenuiflora 
occurs in ‘the Isle of Wight,” : a the subsp. Ss a@ grows ‘on 
the Downs of the Isle of Wight and Eastbourn 
“Now, besides noting more particularly the environments of 
ese s cies, it would be a great boon scienc loc 
botanists would collect the seed ona sow it in a different soil and 
locality, and see how far the subspecies and varieties retained their 
characters by harudite. é or whether they did not change and pass 
one in sities as soon as their environments were altered. 
Thus E. capitata, ere ou a dwarfish form, like all « Dot plants, 
might assume the typ aches common in pastures if grown in the 
richer soil of a sgeodn -sseae or garden.”’ 
