THEIR NOMENCLATURE. 449 
montana” and “folio angustiore.” Both are adopted in ‘Flora 
Anglica’ and in ‘ Flora Britannica,’ as a single species under the 
Linnean name officinalis, the second being placed as a variety. 
They are still the same in the ‘ English Flora’; but an important 
distinction is there made in indicating their situations of growth, 
namely, while the officinalis is located “in marshes, and about 
the banks of pools and rivers,” the montane variety is assigned to 
“dry mountainous woods and pastures”; the word dry being an 
addition to the previous description of place in the ‘ Flora Britan- 
nica.’ This addition shewed that Smith had ascertained the 
narrow-leaved variety to be the inhabitant of drier situations. 
Between the dates of Smith’s two Floras, Gray's ‘ Natural 
Arrangement’ had more decidedly distinguished the variety thus ; 
—‘ Stem slender; leaves narrower; root more aromatic.” In 
Gray’s book the name montana was adopted for the narrow-leaved 
variety, with a reference to Dillenius. In the ‘British Flora’ by 
the late Sir William Hooker, the variety is lost sight of ; and thus 
we got back to the single specics of Ray. This neglect of the 
variety prepared the way for a subsequent confusion in our 
nomenclature presently to be pointed out. None of the above 
mentioned authors would appear to have observed the more 
numerous leaflets of the montane or narrow-leaved variety. 
Perhaps that variety was little known to them; for, if not 
absolutely rare in Britain, it is certainly much rarer or more local 
than their type form, that of the marshes and such like wet 
places. 
The Author of the ‘ Manual’ foreshadowed an innovation in his 
first edition, and carried it into effect in his second. He did so 
with a neglect of his English predecessors, in favour of anything 
foreign, which he had almost promised us on the first page of 
his first Preface. And here again, as in the preceding instance of 
Hypericum, an ill-considered foreign importation has thrown our 
nomenclature into confusion. In that second edition an alleged 
species is disjoined from Valeriana officinalis, under the name of 
“sambucifolia (‘ Mikan’).” It is distinguished by its less numerous 
leaflets; which are stated at 7—10 pairs in officinalis, and at 
3M 
