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308 NEW PUBLICATIONS.
individualized and defined in perfect good faith as the deliberate result
of the labour of many years, cover a wider range of form, or a materially
greater degree of variability within that range, than tlie 43 species in
the other, individualized and defined with a sincerity and an amount
of labour which every one in England, who knows anything about the
matter, is fully prepared to appreciate.
The one point on which we have felt disappointed in Professor
Babington's work is, that he says so little about the result of his ex-
periments in cultivating Rubi. His only material allusion to the matter
is an entirely general one, " More than forty of the supposed species
liave been raised from seeds in the Cambridge Botanic Gardens, and
the produce has not varied in form or characters from the parent
plants." As bearing upon his plan of species-limitation we should
have liked very much to know, in exact detail, which are tlie plants
to which he here alludes, and for how many generations each of them
has been reproduced. But as the matter stands, we cannot form the
slightest idea to what extent he has been guided by the result of his
experiments in planning out the rank of the forms.
Holding, as we have just indicated, tliat into whatever number of
portions the original Rubns fndicosiis be subdivided, they cannot
possibly be separated and characterized as absolutely limitable indi-
vidualities, we would strongly recommend to our rising generation of
collecting botanists the study of the Fruticose Ruhi, as furnishing one
of the best means within their reach of gaining sound conclusions on
the nature of species. Let them in the first place, leaving books and
names altogether on one side, gather some autumn the forms which
grow in the neighbourhood where they live, and try to reckon up
meanwhile how many they can individualize, and note down what are
their distinctive marks. After having done this, let them take Pro-
fessor Babington's book and get access to a set of specimens named
authentically after it, and compai'c their own specimens and notes with
these. And then, if possible, let them, another autumn, visit some
other neighbourhood, and pursue there the same process that they fol-
lowed at homo; and we feel confident, if they do this with reasonable
care, that whatever be their after botanical experience, they will find
their time has not been wasted.