1309.) Monthly Botanical Report. Oe 
i Fe ‘ > i 
The firt leaves of wallepennywort (cotyledon umbilicus), cuckoo-pint (arum maculatum), 
Virgin’s thiftle (carduus marianus), and hemlock (conium macalutam), appear.—Hepatitas, 
tezereon, and crocus’s, are in flower. 
Hampshire, 
MONTHLY BOTANICAL REPORT. 
N our prefent report we van to give an account of the botanical part ef the ninth vo- 
Jume of the Tranfactions of the Linnean Society, lately publifhed. The firtt botanical pa- 
pér we meet with in this volume is the fourth in order, and from the pen of the prefidenty 
It is what the author calls a fketch of the geunus Conchium. This genys having been 
characterifed by Dr. Schrader of Gottingen, and publifhed under the name of Hakea, in his 
Sertum Hannoverianum, before the reading of Dr. Smith’s paper in the fourth volume of 
the Tranfattions, the latter name has the right of priority, and was accordingly adopted hy 
Cavanilles; and the dottor allows, that he might have acceded to this decifion, however 
sorry to part with an apt and characteristic name, were he certain that Hakea were liable to 
* no botanical exception.” We do not exactly know what is meant by this expression , 
but the fact is evident, that the author very naturally feels reluctant to part with so appro- 
priate a name in favour of one applied after a botanist perhaps unknown to him, as 
to us. -But for this attachment to his own offspring, we do not suppose that Dr. Smith 
would have made any exception to the name Hakea, having been himself perhaps a. little 
too lavish in bestowing on his friends this unicum botanicorum premium. We do not however 
feel at all inclined ta blame this attempt at establishing his excellent name of Conchium, 
taken from the forni of the seed vessel, which aptly enough resembles a bivalved shell 5 
especially as the genus is not yet recorded, under any name, in Willdenow’s or other sys- 
tematic work; on which account no inconvenietice can arise from preferring the Lest name 
to the ong having only a claim of priority, and we sincerely hope that Conchium will be 
adopted in the next edition of the Hortus Kewensis, as whichever name may be taken up 
there will probably be established, as long as our present systems and nomenclature shalk 
remain. Twelve species of this genus are here characterised with the authur’s usual 
precision. ; 
The next paper, from the same hand, is an inquiry intothe genus Abelicea cretica of Pona,. 
the Pseudosantalum creticum of Caspar Bauhin, which the author considers to be undoubt- 
edly a congener of Ulmus nemoralis;-but whether either belong to the genus Ulnis, can 
not, for want of complete tructification, be positively decided. [tis here said that Rham- 
nus carpinifolius of the Flora Rossica is the same tree with Ulmus nemoralis, and ihat, from 
the very iuperfect state of the fruit, as possessed both by Pallas and Linnzus, it does uot 
appear very like that ofan Ulmus, but it bears still less resemblance to that of a Rhamnuse 
We wish every botanist would follow the example of Dr. Smith, who says that he always 
prefers leaving things as they.are, to any hasty or rash alteration. 
The sixth paper ts still from the same pen, and entitled an inguiry into the real Daucus 
gingidium, a plant which Linnzus himself, it seems, did vot well understand. It is here 
remarked that the synonytys of Magnol and Boccone puoted by Linngus, are very doubte, 
fal; that the Staphy!iuus folio latiqre of Rivinus, Pent. irr. .t. 50, unquestionably belongs 
to Daucus gvigidium, as does probably D. hispanicus of Gouan, who does not scem to have 
been acquainted with the true gingidum, by name at léast.sIn the Supplementum Plantarum 
the gingidium is again taken up under the name of D. ducidus, from a specanen of it which 
Linnaus had cultivated in the garden at Upsal in his decfining years, and had preserved in: 
his herbariam without applying any specific same to it, theugh it agrees perfectly with his 
own character of D. gingiaium, and with the figure of Matthiolus first quoted by Van Royen, 
In the Linhean herbarium there is a specimen of Daucus (or rather Aimini) 7 .szaga, marked 
D. gingidiwa; and Dr. Sinith remarks, that he had never seen an authentic specimen of the 
latter plant iu any collection . 
The seventh paper contains Descriptiens of eight new British Lichens by Dawson 
Turner, Esq. 
The next is an illustration of the species of Lycium, which grow wild at the Cape of 
Good Hope, by Professor “Lhanberg. Eight species are described, and four, viz. afrum, 
tetrandrun:, cincereum, and herridum, are fizured. 
The next botanical paper is the fourteenth, and contains an account of seme new species. 
of Piper, by Mr. John Vaughan Thoiupson. The author has given some very sensi: le res 
miarks on this very natura] genus, in which the attempt of the authors of the Flora Peruviana 
to separate the herbaceous species, under the nawe of Peperomia, appears to us to be very 
judiciously condemned. Representations are given of two new species, the quad-angulare 
and dracteatum. : 
The fifteenth paper is an inquiry into the structure of seeds, and especially into the true 
nature of that part called, by Gwrtner, the Vitellus. ‘Phe principal intent of this essay ap- 
‘pears to be to show that the organ calied, by Gartner, the Vitellus, does not differ in its 
Montury Mac, No, 182. BE naiuce 
