4 264 Mr Mackay's Flora Hibemica. 



more interesting plant is a curious heath, named by Mr Babington 

 Erica Machaiana. We wish it may be truly distinct, but it is very 

 nearly allied to E. tetralix, which it resembles in its flowers and awned 

 anthers, while in its leaves it approaches E. ciliaris* It is found in 

 Cunnamara, the country of E. Mediierranea, and Menziesia poly folia. 

 Saxifraga geum, b. of Hooker is raised to the rank of a species, un- 

 der the name of S. elegans ; the author states that it has retained 

 its distinctive characters in cultivation since 1807- The Irish whin, 

 Ulex strictus of the catalogue of Irish plants, is reduced to a varie- 

 ty of U. Europoeus ; but we confess we are as much in doubt re- 

 specting that peculiar-looking plant, as Sir W. J. Hooker, who ad- 

 mits that he is at a loss whether to refer it to U. Europeans, or na- 

 nus, or to consider it as a species. But surely the same scruple need 

 not exist in regard to the Florencecourt yew, the Taxus fastigiata 

 of Lindley's Synopsis. Individuals exist in Ireland of fifty years 

 growth. In some few instances Mr Mackay differs from Sir W. J. 

 Hooker ; for example, the genus Conopodium of Koch is preferred 

 to Bunium for the common earth-nut ; and Helosciadium of Koch 

 adopted by Hooker for Sium nodifiorum, repens and innudalum is re- 

 jected. Calamintha officinalis is also still included in the genus Thy- 

 mus. He has fallen into the same error as Sir W. J. Hooker in 

 describing Habenaria chloranlha both under that name, and also 

 under the denomination of H. bij'olia, but there is reason to believe 

 that Mr Mackay had not seen the true H. bifolia of Linnaeus, 

 which is probably not a native of Ireland. The three common 

 Primula? are kept up with an observation that many botanists 

 consider them as only varieties. There seems to be a delicate for- 

 bearance exercised by almost all writers of floras towards the " pale 

 primrose," the " freckled cowslip," and their supposed hybrid the 

 oxlip. Linnaeus believed them to be the children of one parent. 

 Professor Henslow brought the question to the test of direct ex- 

 periment, and raised them all from the same root. Hooker ob- 

 serves, " They are rarely found intermixed, and in Scotland the 

 two last kinds (P. elatior and verts') are scarcely known. t Mr H- 

 F. Talbot found upon the summit of a high mountain near the lake 

 of Thun, in Switzerland, P. elatior in abundance, while P. veris 

 was confined to the base of the hill, and P. vulgaris was not found 



* See Mr Babington's characters at page 201. 



f This is a mistake as far as regards P. veris, which is by no means unfre- 

 quent. We have seen whole fields as thickly dotted with cowslips in Scotland 

 as in England. 



