Recently Published Catalogues of British Plants. 131 
Minuartia verna Hiern is given as the name of the lead-wort 
in the Museum catalogue; whilst the still later Oxford and London 
catalogues give the plant under the name Arenaria verna Linn. 
The Cheddar pink, in the Museum catalogue, is given under the 
name of Dianthus gratiopolitanus Villars; but from the authors’ 
subsequent corrections, we gather that they relinquish this name in 
favour of D. glaucns Huds. The Oxford catalogue, however, gives 
the ugly name of Villars, and simply quotes as synonyms the names 
D. caesius Sm. and D. glaucns Huds. From this confusion, we are, 
for the moment, at least, recovered by the London catalogue, which 
adopts the name of Hudson. A perusal of the notes and corrections 
by Messrs. Rendle & Britten should convince botanists that, in 
spite of the Vienna Congress, we are still some considerable distance 
from finality in the matter of the names of plants ; and as such 
insoluble questions arise as what constitutes publication and what 
constitutes description, it would appear that nothing short of the 
adoption of a list of standard names by some future Congress will 
ever bring, in certain disputed cases, the desired finality. 
Taking the London catalogue as the last word (up-to-date) on 
the subject, we note that the genus Ranunculus is substantially 
unchanged, the “ splitters ” apparently having done their worst 
with the crowfoots some years ago ; and the genera Thalictrum, 
Fumaria, Cochlearia, Brassica, Epilobium, Salix, Potamogeton, and 
some others, are also saved from much further sub-division by the 
systematists. Their energies, however, have not lain dormant, for 
the genus Salicornia, which formerly had two species, now has 
eight; and the genus Euphrasia , which formerly had one species, 
now has fifteen, exclusive of twelve hybrids, a variety, and a forma. 
The genera Rubies and Hieracium are still running their neck-and- 
neck race for numerical supremacy: both are going strongly, and, 
at the present moment, the odds are slightly in favour of the 
hawkweeds ; nor is there any certain indication that the end of the 
race is in sight. 
The following changes (inter alia) of generic names have been 
adopted: Radicula vice Nasturtium, Nymphoides vice Limnanthemum, 
Limonium (pro parte) vice Statice, Centaurium vice Erythrcea, 
Helleborine vice Epipaclis, and Phyllitis vice Scolopendrium. After 
all these years of Calluna Erica, we revert to C. vulgaris; and 
(inter alia) Molinia ccerulea, Mcenchia erecta, Rosa spinosissima, and 
Prinmla vulgaris furnish further illustrations of synonymic atavism. 
Erophila vulgaris, our old friend “ Draba verna ” (a synonym which 
exhibits only a trivial sign of reversion) becomes E. verna. “ Potentilla 
Tormentilla ,” after several years of P. sylvestris, now appears as 
P. erecta. Ulex nanus becomes U. minor, and Potentilla Fragariastrum 
becomes P. sterilis. Conopodium denudatum (= l ‘Bunium flexuosum ”) 
is now C. majus. Stachys Betonica yields to 5. officinalis, Parietaria 
officinalis to P. ramiflora, and Alnus glutinosa to A. rotundifolia. 
“ Scilla nutans ,” Protean in its appellations, is henceforth to be 
spoken of as S. non-scripta. 
Populus canescens disappears as a species, and is catalogued as 
a hybrid. Hieracium is now destitute of a single hybrid, but has 
over 150 varieties and formce, in addition to more than 130 “species.” 
On the other hand, Epilobium, with only 13 species, has 33 hybrids, 
but not a single variety. We wonder if the evidence on which 
these hybrids are founded is invariably sound. 
