Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 34 (1896).djvu/56

 40 ENLARGEMENT OF THE 'JOURNAL OF BOtANY.* an average sample of S. cinerea L. var. aquatica, not being suffici- ently distinct from the type ; but it was the only available form gathered in the season of 1895. A much more distinct form of the variety occurs in Dorset. which the late Dr. F. B. White named S. Caprea x repens, and re- ported as new for Britain in his Bevision (p. 394) under that title. We have never been able to accept that naming, and are convinced, after six years of cultivation and careful study, that our own naming is the correct one. There is reason to suspect that the two supposed cases of 8. cinerea x repens, given in the preceding para- graph in the Revision (pp. 393, 394), one of which was our own gathering from Holme Fen, are merely strong repens forms, and that our plant (No. 63) was the only S. cinerea x repens known for Britain when the Revision was published. five of these come from one small area of heath intersected by a line of railway. As these all present some variation, the inference is that there is little or no constancy in repens forms ; and wider ob- servation tends to show that they are too numerous, and shade off too gradually into one another, to be worth classifying under the discarded varietal names. 8. rosmarinifoUa (No. 72) is introduced into our set because it has long been regarded as British, and per- haps too hastily been dropped out of the British list. It is almost more than a variety, a sub-species rather of 8. repens. A remarkable form of 8. Myrsinites is issued as No. 73, only found hitherto in one corner of Glen Fiagh : there is a possibility that 8. nigricans may have entered remotely into its composition, and may account for the shape and size of the leaves, but the evidence is too slight for any certainty regarding its presence." ENLARGEMENT OF THE 'JOURNAL OF BOTANY.' [With the December number was sent out a circular, announcing a proposed enlargement of this Journal, with a reply post-card on which subscribers were invited to express their views on the matter. The responses have been in almost every instance favourable, and the change therefore begins with the present issue. As it is desirable to put on record in the Journal itself the reasons which have led to the change, the circular above referred to is here reprinted.] The steady increase in the number of papers which have been sent to the Journal of Botany for publication during the last year has forced upon me the consideration of means whereby to meet the demands upon its space. This increase is gratifying evidence that the Journal is recognized as a suitable medium of communication with the scientific world ; and it may be said with truth that it offers the only means by which prompt publication of new dis- coveries can be secured.
 * Our No. 63, S. cinerea x repens, is the same plant as that
 * Nos. 68-71 contain several forms of S. repens. No less than