THEIR NOMENCLATURE. 451 
with few leaflets, which grows in the less watery places. But 
sambucifolia, the form with 4—6 pairs of broad leaflets, is more 
especially the plant of ditches and watery places; while the other 
form, that with usually more numerous and narrower leaflets, is 
the plant of the less humid places. This difference is con- 
spicuously shewn near Godalming in Surrey, for instance, where 
the narrow-leaved form is plentiful among nut-bushes on a sand- 
stone hill infiltrated with chalk, known as Frith Hill; while the 
broad-leaved sambucifolia alone grows in a deep bog at its base, 
among alder bushes and various swamp plants. ‘This is a note- 
worthy difference, considering that seeds from the hill plants are 
likely to be blown into the adjacent bog year after year. In each 
place the plants occur by hundreds; and elsewhere in the same 
county I observe the like connexion between the varieties and 
their places. 
When Mr. Boswell-Syme took the question in hand for ‘ English 
Botany,’ edition third, a more accurate observation and a better 
botanical judgment were brought to bear upon it. This botanist 
adheres to the single species, and gives it under its proper specific 
name officinalis. He distinguishes the two segregates, as varieties 
differing but little from each other. And he avoids the confusion, 
by giving to each of the segregates its own distinctive name; 
adopting that of sambucifolia for the abundant broad-leaved form, 
and fitting that of Mikanii to the rarer narrow-leaved form. In 
consequence, those botanists who may have occasion to speak of 
these plants, or to record localities for either, can now do so in an 
intelligible manner, by using the names of ‘English Botany.’ 
They can record any form of the species by its old and true name 
officinalis; or they can shew exactly which variety of it is 
intended, by using Mikanii or sambucifolia, as the case may 
require. Truly, we much needed a Boswell-Syme, to adjust our 
botanical nomenclature to the requirements of science and the 
dictates of common sense! 
6. “Aspidium spinulosum, Sw.” is the name used in ‘ Ben- 
tham’s Handbook’ to include under its broad wings the three 
