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don streets by beggars of the most abject description, and about the trade of which some statistics are available. If the book was worth a longer notice in a Journal like ours, we might go right through its pages, offering hints and suggestions; but we must pause, hoping that the author, before he comes again before the public, will more profitably cultivate a field for which he evidently has a fancy.

A Monograph of the British Cladonia. By W. Mudd. 1 vol. quarto, 36 pp., with fasciculus of dried specimens of 80 species and varieties.

What Rubus is to the student of British flowering plants, Cladonia is to the lichenist, with the added intricacy which results from the different appearances assumed by the same plant in different stages of growth. As our author writes, "The genus is well defined, and its limits easily determined, (he includes under the name, it should be observed, like most modern writers, Scyphophorus and Pycnothelia of the British flora,) but by far the greater portion of its species are doubtful and unsatisfactory. They have such a strong tendency to break up into endless varieties or forms, that the student is often puzzled to know which are to be regarded as types of species and which as degenerations. Such genera furnish a fitting task for the monographers. General botanists have usually their hands too full to unravel their intricacies; and as it has been with most other genera of this kind, so it has been with Cladonia. There has been an extremely wide divergence in regard to the limitation of the book-species. Some, like Scopoli and Hudson, have cut the Gordian knot by referring all the varied forms of Cup-mosses to a single species. Both here and in his Manual, Mr. Mudd has steered a middle course between the opposite extremes. For Britain, exclusive of the ambiguous Cladonia vermicularis of Swartz, he recognizes and describes fourteen specific types, viz.:-1. endiviafolia; 2. cervicornis; 3. coralloidea; 4. cariosa; 5. pyxidata; 6. gracilis; 7. degenerans; 8. squamosa; 9. furcata; 10. rangiferina; 11. stellata; 12. amaurocræa; 13. coccifera; 14. Papillaria; and under these he groups 143 described varieties, or, as most of them would perhaps better be designated, states of development. The example of illustrating the genus by special fasciculi of specimens, has been set upon the Continent by the Abbé Coemans and Professor Anzi, who have lately issued beautifully-prepared sets of the

Belgian and Italian forms. Mr. Mudd has followed this method, and subjoins to his paper very full and satisfactory examples of all his species, and upwards of eighty of his forms, so that altogether his work possesses that commendable thoroughness which, when a monograph lacks, it stands without excuse.

The only fault which we have to find is on the score of nomenclature. It seems to us that the lichenists are causing themselves considerable needless confusion by not following the received rules with regard to the adoption of names and citation of authorities for them. Schoerer is the principal offender in this respect. To cast aside the widelyaccepted Linnæan name of uncialis, and re-christen the plant stellata, as Schoerer has done, and Kærber, Rabenhorst, and Mr. Mudd have followed him in doing, is quite contrary to rule. Mr. Mudd's "Cladonia endiviafolia, Ach.," is just Hudson's Lichen foliaceus (1778). The name endiviæfolius goes back as far as Vaillant and Micheli, but in post-Linnæan times Dickson was the first to apply it, whilst alpestris and sylvatica, for which Mr. Mudd cites Hoffman and Acharius, both go back to Linnæus.

About the spermogones of Cladonia vermicularis, a doubtful plant altogether, the lichenists are widely at issue. What Dr. Nylander considers as the spermogones of the Cladonia, Mr. Mudd refers to a new parasitic Endocarpon, which he describes here under the name of E. Crombii; and what Dr. Lindsay considers as such he credits to a Lecidea. As the readers of the Journal will already be prepared to understand from what Mr. Carroll has told them, since the publication of the Manual in 1861, a large number of Lichens new to Britain have been detected, and Mr. Mudd intimates that a revised edition of that work is in preparation.

Notes sur quelques Plantes rares ou critiques de la Belgique. Cinquième fascicule. By Professor Crépin. Brussels: Gustave Mayolez. 1865. 8vo, 274 pp. with 6 plates.

The establishment of the Royal Society of Botany in Belgium has given a great impulse to the study of its indigenous vegetation, and Professor Crépin has in this, the fifth part of his notes, to register the discovery of fourteen novelties, in addition to eight species now clearly established as Belgian plants, which before were classed amongst the " doubtfuls." These twenty-four species are the following, viz. :

don streets by beggars of the most abject description, and about the trade of which some statistics are available. If the book was worth a longer notice in a Journal like ours, we might go right through its pages, offering hints and suggestions; but we must pause, hoping that the author, before he comes again before the public, will more profitably cultivate a field for which he evidently has a fancy.

A Monograph of the British Cladonia. By W. Mudd. 1 vol. quarto, 36 pp., with fasciculus of dried specimens of 80 species and varieties.

What Rubus is to the student of British flowering plants, Cladonia is to the lichenist, with the added intricacy which results from the different appearances assumed by the same plant in different stages of growth. As our author writes, "The genus is well defined, and its limits easily determined, (he includes under the name, it should be observed, like most modern writers, Scyphophorus and Pycnothelia of the British flora,) but by far the greater portion of its species are doubtful and unsatisfactory. They have such a strong tendency to break up into endless varieties or forms, that the student is often puzzled to know which are to be regarded as types of species and which as degenerations. Such genera furnish a fitting task for the monographers. General botanists have usually their hands too full to unravel their intricacies; and as it has been with most other genera of this kind, so it has been with Cladonia. There has been an extremely wide divergence in regard to the limitation of the book-species. Some, like Scopoli and Hudson, have cut the Gordian knot by referring all the varied forms of Cup-mosses to a single species. Both here and in his Manual, Mr. Mudd has steered a middle course between the opposite extremes. For Britain, exclusive of the ambiguous Cladonia vermicularis of Swartz, he recognizes and describes fourteen specific types, viz.:-1. endiviæfolia; 2. cervicornis; 3. coralloidea; 4. cariosa; 5. pyxidata; 6. gracilis; 7. degenerans; 8. squamosa; 9. furcata; 10. rangiferina; 11. stellata; 12. amaurocræa; 13. coccifera; 14. Papillaria; and under these he groups 143 described varieties, or, as most of them would perhaps better be designated, states of development. The example of illustrating the genus by special fasciculi of specimens, has been set upon the Continent by the Abbé Coemans and Professor Anzi, who have lately issued beautifully-prepared sets of the

Belgian and Italian forms. Mr. Mudd has followed this method, and subjoins to his paper very full and satisfactory examples of all his species, and upwards of eighty of his forms, so that altogether his work possesses that commendable thoroughness which, when a monograph lacks, it stands without excuse.

The only fault which we have to find is on the score of nomenclature. It seems to us that the lichenists are causing themselves considerable needless confusion by not following the received rules with regard to the adoption of names and citation of authorities for them. Scherer is the principal offender in this respect. To cast aside the widelyaccepted Linnæan name of uncialis, and re-christen the plant stellata, as Schoerer has done, and Koerber, Rabenhorst, and Mr. Mudd have followed him in doing, is quite contrary to rule. Mr. Mudd's "Cladonia endiviæfolia, Ach.," is just Hudson's Lichen foliaceus (1778). The name endiviæfolius goes back as far as Vaillant and Micheli, but in post-Linnæan times Dickson was the first to apply it, whilst alpestris and sylvatica, for which Mr. Mudd cites Hoffman and Acharius, both go back to Linnæus.

About the spermogones of Cladonia vermicularis, a doubtful plant altogether, the lichenists are widely at issue. What Dr. Nylander considers as the spermogones of the Cladonia, Mr. Mudd refers to a new parasitic Endocarpon, which he describes here under the name of E. Crombii; and what Dr. Lindsay considers as such he credits to a Lecidea. As the readers of the Journal will already be prepared to understand from what Mr. Carroll has told them, since the publication of the Manual in 1861, a large number of Lichens new to Britain have been detected, and Mr. Mudd intimates that a revised edition of that work is in preparation.

Notes sur quelques Plantes rares ou critiques de la Belgique. Cinquième fascicule. By Professor Crépin. Brussels: Gustave Mayolez. 1865. 8vo, 274 pp. with 6 plates.

The establishment of the Royal Society of Botany in Belgium has given a great impulse to the study of its indigenous vegetation, and Professor Crépin has in this, the fifth part of his notes, to register the discovery of fourteen novelties, in addition to eight species now clearly established as Belgian plants, which before were classed amongst the " doubtfuls." These twenty-four species are the following, viz. :

Adonis flammea, Adonis autumnalis, Neslia paniculata, Colutea arborescens, Vicia villosa, Asperula glauca, Crepis pulchra, Verbascum pulverulentum, Rumex aquaticus, Rumex maximus, Stellera Passerina, Taxus baccata, Orchis palustris, Potamogeton mucronatus, Corallorhiza innata, Carex dioica, Carex paradoxa, Carex ornithopoda, Carex depauperata, Glyceria Borreri, Aspidium Lonchitis, Chara Braunii.

All these are fully characterized, the critical species being described and compared with their allies with great care and minuteness; and in addition to this nearly seventy other species are enumerated, which are rare in Belgium, on the local distribution of which the excursions of 1865 have thrown new light. Considering the feebleness of the boreal or alpine element in the Belgian flora, we may consider Aspidium Lonchitis and Corallorhiza the most interesting of the additions. They have both been met with in the Ardennes, where they are associated with Lycopodium alpinum and Allosorus crispus. Of the former only a single tuft has been gathered, at an elevation, if we understand M. Crépin correctly, of 250 metres above sea-level. Potamogeton mucronatus is our compressus. Chara Braunii (C. coronala, A. Braun) is known in every continent except Australia, and in Western Europe is diffused from Finland southward to Spain and Corsica, so that it may reasonably be expected in Britain. It is characterized by stem and rays formed of simple tubes and upper articulations terminated by numerous points. In a supplementary paper on the European Glyceria, M. Crépin proposes two new species, both from the shores of the Mediterranean, which he names expansa and pseudo-distans. The six plates are entirely devoted to the illustration of this genus. Our G. Borreri M. Crépin has found in Belgium abundantly, not only on the seashore, but also in sandy ground inland, and recognizes as a fully distinct species.

BOTANICAL NEWS.

Mr. Hemsley, of Kew, is now collecting materials for a flora of his native county, Sussex, and would feel thankful to resident botanists for complete local lists and specimens of critical plants. Communications should be addressed to him at Kew, W.; and as a certain number of subscribers will be necessary before any final arrangement can be made for publication, we trust our British botanists will not fail to encourage him by sending in their names.

A petition is now in course of being signed by botanists to urge upon Go

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