197 
CHAPTER OF CRITICISM. 
Reply to Mr. Hall’s Queries respecting certain Plants. 
To the Editor of the Naturalist. 
Dear Sir, —In answer to the queries of T. B. Hall, Vol. III., p. 26, none of 
the four plants mentioned are in Loudon’s Hortus Britannicus. I have Malope 
grandiflora , but with no other name. As for Nigella Romana , I have it also. 
I think it is Nigella damacena , but am not sure. It is figured in one of the 
early volumes of Curtis’s Botanical Magazine. Of the other plants alluded to 
by your correspondent I know nothing. 
Mr. Hall must not place implicit reliance on Loudon, as I find his list of 
Opuntice very incorrect. Should this meet his eye, I suppose I shall bring upon 
myself the vengeance of the colossal book-maker, but “ that peril rests upon my 
single head.” 
T. K. Short. 
Martin Hall, Feb. 1, 1838. 
£In books of such “ colossal” dimensions as those of Mr. Loudon, it is scarcely 
surprising that numerous errors should occur, notwithstanding all the care and 
labour that may have been bestowed on the productions. The fact of a book’s 
being compiled is certainly not enough to damn it, and Mr. Loudon’s works 
have evidently been printed on the “high-pressure” principle. Botanists and 
naturalists generally are, beyond all question, deeply indebted to Mr. L. for his 
unremitting labours for the advancement and diffusion of Natural History ; but, 
even supposing this were not the case, the candid and impartial spirit in which 
he is at all times ready to attend to notices of his errors—whether supposed or 
actual—is alike deserving praise and imitation.— Ed.] 
On Mr. Lankester’s Remarks respecting Christmas-Day, 1837* 
To the Editor of the Naturalist. 
Bewsey House , Feb. 3, 1838. 
My dear Sir, —Mr. Lankester seems to have fallen into an error, at p. 108, 
respecting the temperature on Christmas-day. The thermometer here was no 
higher than 52°, and this, considering the time of year, manifested a remarkable 
degree of warmth. Mr. Watson, in his Geographical Distribution of Plants , 
has given several tables, illustrative of the distribution of heat in Britain, at 
various periods of the year. From these it appears that at Manchester the average 
