Naturalized Plant in Forfarshire, SIDEBOTHAM, JOSEPH

Accidental Introduction of Foreign WOODS, JOSEPH, F.L.S.

Plants into Britain, 322 WESTCOMBE, THOMAS

Occurrence of Linaria supina at Hayle, and Lastræa recurva throughout Cornwall, 29; Occurrence of Carex punctata on the Cornish coast, 57

Notes of a Botanical Excursion in
Hampshire, 258
WOODWARD, S. P.

A few Words on the terms Native,
Naturalized, and Imperfectly Na-
turalized, 201

NOTICES AND EXTRACTS.

London Journal of Botany, Nos. 69 to 72, dated September to December, 1847, 4; Nos. 73 to 75, 105; 76 to 82, 327

On the Organography of Irregular Corollas.

By F. Barneoud. Extracted from

the 'Comptes Rendus,' for August 16, 1847, as Translated in the Annals and
Magazine of Natural History,' for December, 1847, 11

Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Vol. xx., Parts 1 and 2, 15
Annals and Magazine of Natural History, for the year 1847, Vols. xix. and xx., or
Nos. 123 to 136, 49

The Flora of Forfarshire. By William Gardiner. London: Longman & Co., 1848, 65
Botanical Extracts from James Backhouse's Visit to the Mauritius, &c., 78, 86
Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club, for the year ending February, 1847, Vol. i., Part i., 91
V Vegetation of the Organ Mountains. Extracted from Gardener's Travels in Brazil, 94
The Cryptogamic Vasculares of Rhenish Prussia. By Ph. Wirtgen. Bonn, 1847, 98
Description of a new British Mould. By George Johnston, M.D., &c. Extracted

from the Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club,' 112 Opuscula omnia Botanica Thomæ Johnsoni, Pharmaceutica Societatis Londinensis Socii. Nuperrime edita à T. S. Ralph, e Collegio Regali Chirurgorum Angliæ, et Societate Linneana Lond. Londoni: Sumptibus Guliel. Pamplin, 1847, 114 The Principles of Nature, her Divine Revelations, and a Voice to Mankind. By and through Andrew Jackson Davis, the Poughkeepsie Seer and Clairvoyant. London: John Chapman, 142, Strand. Stereotype Edition, 1847, 149 The Flora of Leicestershire, according to the Natural Orders, arranged from the 'London Catalogue of British Plants.' Leicester: printed by J. S. Crossley, 1848, 157 The Physical Atlas, a Series of Maps illustrating the Geographical Distribution of Natural Phenomena. By Henry Berghaus, L.L.D., and Alexander Keith Johnston, F.R.G.S. Edinburgh: Johnston. London: Saunders. Glasgow: Lumsden, 170

Contributions towards a Catalogue of Plants indigenous to the Neighbourhood of Tenby. London: Longman & Co., 1848, 183 The Flora Hertfordiensis; being a Catalogue of Plants known, or reported to grow wild in the County of Hertford, with the Stations of the rarer Species. By the Rev. R. H. Webb; assisted by the Rev. W. H. Coleman, and by various Correspondents. Pamplin, London. 1848. Part 1, 184

The Plant; a Biography. In a series of Popular Lectures. By M. J. Schleiden, M.D., Professor of Botany to the University of Jena. Translated by Arthur Henfrey, F.L.S., &c. London: H. Bailliére, 219, Regent Street, 1848, 227 Hereditary Variations of Plants. From the Gardeners' and Farmers' Journal,' of September 9, 1848, 319

REPORTS OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES.

Botanical Society of Edinburgh, 58, 81, 110

Botanical Society of London, 8, 33, 65, 94, 136, 146, 187, 225, 268, 312, 334, Dundee Naturalists' Association, 7, 126, 225, 346

Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club, 13

384

THE

PHYTOLOGIST.

On the Equisetum fluviatile of the London Catalogue of British Plants.' By HEWETT C. WATSON, Esq.

THE position of "Equisetum fluviatile" among the "Excluded Species" of the 'London Catalogue' may prove a puzzle to other botanists, equally as to the reviewer of that Catalogue, in the December number of the 'Phytologist' (Phytol. ii. 1051). And since this position of the Equisetum in question has been selected by the reviewer as an instance of occasional inaccuracy in the said Catalogue, it may not be amiss to offer the explanation which seems to be required, in connexion with the reviewer's remarks thereon.

Readers of the 'Phytologist' are well aware that English botanists long habitually applied the name "fluviatile" to that species of Equisetum which is now currently designated "Telmateia." This error was pointed out by continental botanists, and subsequently corrected by Newman in the former volume of the 'Phytologist' (Phytol. i. 534), and the 'History of British Ferns' (p. 52). In making the correction, Mr. Newman did not discard the name of "fluviatile" wholly, but transferred it to that other species which most English botanists still know under the name of "limosum." The propriety of this transfer, however, is yet not acquiesced in by some botanists, who are among those most likely to have considered the subject.

This lat

In the first edition of the London Catalogue' the name "Telmateia" was adopted from Newman in place of "fluviatile." ter name was in consequence wholly omitted; that of "limosum' being retained for the plant which most English authors had so designated in their works. In editing the second edition of the same Catalogue, the question again came before us, whether the name of "limosum" should be retained, in accordance with the usage of English authors generally, or whether the name of "fluviatile" should be adopted from Newman, instead of the former. In the second edition of the 'British Ferns' (p. 51), the two names are treated as synonyms, that is to say, as meaning one single species which is barely distinguishable into two very slight varieties, the branched and the unVOL. III.

B

branched ;-varieties which pass insensibly one into the other. But nevertheless a sort of contradiction of his own view is given by the same author in the prefixed Synopsis (p. 7). And there are other and stronger reasons for avoiding the change at present, in addition to Mr. Newman's own state of doubt about the plants.

In a more recent publication on British plants, the second edition of Babington's Manual, we find a different application of the name "fluviatile" (of "Linneus"); where it is used for a plant distinguished from the Equisetum limosum (of "Linneus ") by other characters than the presence of branches. And the author of the Manual mentions the plant so distinguished, and so named, as one that is only reported to be native. Apparently he had seen no British specimen. Neither had Mr. Dennes or I seen any examples of it. According to Fries

the true Eq. fluviatile (Linn.) and Eq. limosum (Linn.) are two readily distinguished species, although usually deemed varieties of one. And it is these two alleged different plants which are intended by those names in the second edition of Babington's Manual, and in the second edition of the 'London Catalogue.'

After this explanation, I trust it will appear that the reviewer was right in saying that Equisetum fluviatile was "not unadvisedly placed among the "Excluded Species" of the 'London Catalogue.' It is there entered in the following manner, which is important to the defence or explanation :

'fluviatile, "L."— ? '

The use of inverted commas ("L.") was of course intended to show that we gave the name on some authority, and not as an ascertained fact to which we could ourselves certify. And the addition of the note of interrogation (the use of which, when so applied, is explained in the Catalogue) signified that the species is one "not clearly ascer, tained to occur in the British Islands." With respect to authority for the name, we have the very high one of Fries, endorsed (as the Americans say) by Babington. And with respect to the nativity of the plant in Britain, we were surely entitled and called upon to place among the doubtfuls any alleged species of Equisetum which was apparently unnoticed by Newman in 1844; which, in 1847, Babington vaguely mentions only as one reported to be native; and of which neither of us, the editors of the Catalogue, had seen an example. If, as stated by Fries, Eq. limosum and Eq. fluviatile, both of Linneus, are two distinct species, it must still remain to be ascertained satis