6952 Botanical. 



master of human nature, Horace, suggests ; this, however, is a caution 

 we give with considerable diffidence, for let us not be misunderstood 

 to desire any dilution of the matter provided, nor in a purely scientific 

 work would we sacrifice anything to mere popular reading ; only let 

 there be a careful and judicious arrangement of the material, and let 

 it be conveyed in a pleasing form and in well-chosen language, 

 minutiae these often overlooked as of comparatively trifling importance, 

 and yet not to be disregarded even in the most abstruse and scientific 

 disquisitions. 



With these friendly remarks we close our examination of the first 

 volume of the ' Ibis,' heartily commending it to our readers, and 

 trusting it will continue in the same masterly manner in which it has 

 begun. A. 



Botanist's Corner. 



Question as to the Species of the British Ci/clamen. — Botanical subjects do not 

 usually appear in the ' Zoologist;' but, being a Journal which I have long known and 

 constantly read, T wish, if the indulgence may be allowed, to inquire through its pages 

 what species of Cyclamen it is which in a few instances has been found wild in Eng- 

 land, or whether we have more than one species? I believe that all our published 

 Floras give it as C. hederifoliura of Willdenow ; but it appears to me that nearly all 

 of them, since Smith's ' English Flora,' have confounded Willdenow's plant with 

 C. neapolitanum of Prof. Tenore, — that whilst they quote the former as synonymous 

 with theirs, their description is that of the latter. The two species are clearly distinct : 

 in C. neapolitanum the mouth of the coi-olla is circled with projecting teeth, audits time 

 of blossoming is the autumn ; C. hederifolium is without these dental appendages, and 

 blossoms in the spring. The following localities are given in our Floras and other books : 

 Bramfield, Suffolk, on a bank of wet clay ; Sandhurst, near Cranbrook, Kent ; Stockpole 

 Court, Pembrokeshire ; also somewhere in Nottinghamshire, and in Sussex. Hitherto I 

 have failed, by private inquiry and correspondence, to obtain the desired information, 

 except that my friend James Atkins, the originator of the beautiful hybrid Cyclamen 

 which bears his name, has informed me that he has received both leaves and flowers 

 from the Stockpole Court locality, and that they are undoubtedly those of C. neapoli- 

 tanum. I therefore hope that, through the readers of the ' Zoologist,' some further 

 light on the subject will be, sooner or later, obtained. If the time of blossoming at 

 any place could be ascertained, that alone would be, I believe, sufficient to determine 

 the species for that locality, whilst other localities may produce another species ; for 

 though it has been stated that C. hederifolium will sometimes blossom in the autumn 

 as well as in the spring, I believe the statement to be contrary to the experience of all 

 cultivators, and that it is an error which has arisen from the confounding of this spe- 

 cies with one or more of the autumnal-flowering species. — Thomas Clark ; Halesleigh, 

 January 17, 1860. 



