THE PAPERS, from which the work now submitted to the public has been extracted, were written by Mr. Bentham at various times, from the year 1802 to 1812. They comprise a very minute exposition of his views on all the branches of the great subject of Judicial Evidence, intermixed with criticisms on the law of Evidence as it is established in this country, and with incidental remarks on the state of that branch of law in most of the continental systems of jurisprudence.

Mr. Bentham’s speculations on Judicial Evidence have already been given to the world, in a more condensed...

IN THE STUDY of Nature, either mental or physical, the aim of the scientific enquirer is to diminish as much as possible the catalogue of ultimate truths. When, without doing violence to facts, he is able to bring one phenomenon within the laws of another; when he can shew that a fact or agency, which seemed to be original and distinct, could have been produced by other known facts and agencies, acting according to their own laws; the enquirer who has arrived at this result, considers himself to have made an important advance in the knowledge of nature, and to...

THE BRILLIANT COLOURING of Nature is prolonged, with incessant changes, from March till October; but the fragrance of her breath is spent before the summer is half ended. From March to July an uninterrupted succession of sweet odours fills the air by day and still more by night, but the gentler perfumes of autumn, like many of the earlier ones here for that reason omitted, must be sought ere they can be found. The Calendar of Odours, therefore, begins with the laurel, and ends with the lime.]]

March—Common laurel.

April—Violets, furze, wall-flower, common broad-leaved willow, appleblossom....

RIBES RUBRUM AND NIGRUM, the former in many places, the latter abundantly in one place, by the side of the Mole near Esher: perfectly wild and completely naturalized. Turritis glabra, abundant and fine by the road-side between Hampton and Sunbury. Diplotaxis tenuifolia, a rare plant in Surrey, is very abundant above Walton Bridge. Cerastium arvense, on banks by the side of the Thames below Walton Bridge....

ISATIS TINCTORIA is now growing in prodigious luxuriance in the chalk-quarries close to the town [of Guildford]. It grows (in many instances) out of clefts in the precipitous chalk cliff, and makes almost abushof flowers from the same root. Geranium lucidum I again found in my old locality, near St. Catherine’s Hill....

IMPATIENS FUL VA. At whatever period introduced, this plant is now so thoroughly naturalized, that it would be pedantry any longer to refuse it that place in the English Flora, which has been accorded on less strong grounds to many plants originally introduced from abroad. For many miles by the side of the Wey, both above and below Guildford, it is as abundant as the commonest river-side plants, the Lythrum Salicaria or Epilobium hirsutum; and my friend Mr. Henry Cole1 informs me that it is found in various places by the same river all the way to its junction with...

CNICUS FORSTERI I saw growing by hundreds last month in a piece of marshy ground formerly part of Ditton Common; at least it was the plant I previously found near Weybridge and sent to Sir W. Hooker.¹ It was growing with various numbers of flowers from one up to four, each on a separate and generally a long stalk. On comparing it with the books both English and foreign, and especially with Decandolle’s description of his Cirsium anglicum² (our Cnicus pratensis), I have little doubt that it is merely a variety of that, and that C. Forsteri, as you suggested,...

SINCE THE PUBLICATION of the list of Guildford plants in the last number ofThe Phytologist,¹ Fumaria claviculata has been refound in its old locality, Martha’s Chapel, and likewise on the extensive common near Shalford, called Blackheath. Epipactis latifolia has been found at the Sheepleas, and Cuscuta Europaea in an osier holt by the river Wey, a short distance above Guildford, entwined round nettles, the Spiraea Ulmaria, and the osiers themselves....

POLYGONUM DUMETORUM grows copiously in the hedges on more than one part of the road from the Woking-Common station to Guildford.*...

I OBSERVED the following less common plants in the Isle of Wight, during a week’s tour in July, some years ago.¹...

LINE 34, forTriticum NardusreadT. junceum.Tamarix gallica, (line 37) has most probably been introduced into the locality near Yarmouth. Poa bulbosa (line 42) must be erased from the list: the mistake arose from an imperfect specimen of a grass from Alum Bay having been compared by a friend with continental specimens of Poa bulbosa, in its viviparous state. The Alum Bay plant was afterwards found to be an Agrostis. To the plants growing in salt marshes at Yarmouth, add Triglochin maritimum and Potamogetón pectinatum. To those of the New Forest add Triglochin palustre....

WE THINK it highly desirable that such lovers of botany as are not yet aware of the fact, should be apprised that there has now existed, for nearly two years, a botanical magazine, at the low price of one shilling. This little periodical is not intended to compete with the large works which are addressed to the scientific public, and are the appointed vehicles for the more recondite discoveries and discussions of vegetable physiology. Without excluding such discussions when they can be brought within the limits of the work, thePhytologistaddresses itself less to scientific physiologists than to naturalists...

THE READERS ofThe Phytologist,and all botanists, are much indebted to Mr. H.C. Watson for his careful, and I believe accurate investigation, in the January number, of the three species of Oenanthe, hitherto confounded under the names of peucedanifolia and pimpinelloides(Phytol.ii. II).¹ I have long been convinced that there was some unknown quantity to be determined among the English species of this very interesting genus, which has until lately received very little critical investigation in this country. It is not generally known that one of these three species grows abundantly in so familiar and much frequented a...

SINCE my note on the species of Oenanthe was printed(Phytol.ii. 48), my specimens from Battersea, Weybridge and Seaford have had the advantage of being examined by Mr. Watson. That gentleman confirms my statement respecting the Battersea and Weybridge plants, which he decides to be his Oenanthe Smithii, the peucedanifolia of Smith. The plant from Seaford, which I had classed as the pimpinelloides, he pronounces to be Oenanthe Lachenalii; and he has fully satisfied me, both by his high authority, and by a comparison of specimens with which he has most courteously supplied me, that I was previously unacquainted...

IN THE “Descriptive British Botany,” publishing in thePhytologist,it is stated under the initials of Mr. Irvine, that he has never observedIsatis tinctoria(except an occasional straggler) on the west side of the river Wey.¹ It will be agreeable to this accurate and trustworthy investigator of localities (by whose indications many others as well as myself must have been often guided to rare plants) to be informed that this fine plant grew in the utmost profusion in 1849 (and doubtless grows still) in the great chalk-quarry near Compton, on the south side of the Hog's Back, a place...

Thalictrumflavum.By the Mole below Sidlow Bridge.

Ranunculus parviflorus.On the steepest part of Brockham Hill, in Elder

thickets about half-way up the hill, abundantly.

Fumaria capreolata.Near Buckland, by the footpath leading to the chalk hills.

Nasturtium sylvestre.Most plentiful in the dry bed of the Mole, between

Mickleham and Leatherhead, and in streams north of Leatherhead.

Barbareapraecox.By the road from Dorking to Capel, near the commencement

of the Holmwood.

Arabis hirsuta.Juniper Hill, Mickleham Downs, Box Hill, and other parts of

the chalk hills near Dorking. This plant is so characteristic of the Surrey Hills, that

its...

IF YOU print myPlantae Rarioresof North-western Surrey,¹ it may be as well to add Cirsium anglicum (Carduus pratensis), which has two good habitats in the district; and also (though belonging to its extreme point) that decidedly western plantScilla autumnalis,which I have seen growing on Moulsey Hurst, where it grew in Ray’s time.²...

THIS LIST of plants is in a great degree superseded by the newReigate Flora,just published by Mr. Brewer;¹ which, as might be expected, contains most of the plants which I have mentioned, with many others which I had not detected. I had however the good fortune of finding some which have escaped even Mr. Brewer. Of one of these(Catabrosa aquatica)I have observed a new station, much nearer to Reigate, even since the publication of Mr. Brewer’s work, viz. in the swamp at Whiggey, on the west side of the Brighton road, at a very short distance...

TORILIS NODOSA.—On the grassy slope above Hyde Vale.

Trifolium striatum.—Very abundantly along the road crossing the heath diagonally towards Morden College, and the prolongation of that road into Blackheath Park (June, 1856).

Trifolium (or Trigonella) ornithopodioides.—Very scantily by the same road, in front of the Paragon, in 1853. Not seen since; but Blackheath being one of the recorded stations of this small inconspicuous plant, it probably still exists on some other part of the heath.

Tragopogonporrifolius.—In some abundance in a corner of a meadow by the prolongation (already mentioned) of the diagonal road into Blackheath Park....

PLANTS in bloom on March 29:Anemone nemorosa, Veronica hederaefolia, Nepeta Glechoma, Salix Caprea,andTaxus baccata. Hutchinsiais very fine and abundant in the old place....

I HAVE SELDOM ENJOYED a greater botanical pleasure than in finding yesterday, for the first time, theLeucojumin the Plumstead Marshes. I had always missed it hitherto by seeking for itaboveGreenwich, according to the fallacious indication (no doubt true once) of Curtis and Smith.¹ I was delighted to see that in two different swamps, both already well known to me, this beautiful plant exists in such profusion that all the botanists in England would scarcely exhaust it; and as both places are within the practising-ground of the Arsenal, they are not likely to be drained and built...

I HAVE JUST returned from Bristol, where I foundArabis stricta, Trinia vulgaris, Potentilla verna, Geranium sanguineum, Convallaria Polygonatum,the last not yet in flower....

. . . I FOUNDElymusabundant about Sherborn Sands, which, it may be new to you to hear, are now shut up; but the key can be had for asking for, without the bore of an attendant. I have investigated the corner of Blackheath, and soon sightedGeraniumpratense.Being thus satisfied that I was in the right place, I sought and found, among a profusion ofTrifolium striatum and minus,threeMedicagines,beinglupulina, maculata,and another, prostrate, with spinous fruit and unstained leaves. This last could not beminima,as it was far from having entire stipules; but...

. . . I HAVE BEEN OUT for a few days, with some botanical results. You have probably found, like myself, that when one goes to a neighbourhood known for rare plants one seldom finds those one seeks for: one finds others which one did not expect. It has not so happened with me this time, for during a day at Matlock I found one of the two special rarities of that place,Thlaspi virens,Bab.(alpestre,Sm.), still not entirely out of flower; and I have plenty for you as well as myself, if you would like to have...

TOUCHING themurality of Linaria purpurea,the only two places where I have seen it undoubtedly wild were cornfields: one near Frimley, in Surrey, in the large cornfield noted by Mr. Watson as a station of that thumping plantArnoseris pusilla;¹ the other was on the Mont des Alouettes, a richly cultivated eminence in La Vendée, along withLathyrus angulatus,a plant which will probably some day find its way here as an agrarian plant. The exact similarity of the habitat in these two cases satisfied methat L.purpureahas as much right to be considered a British as a...

. . . I HAVE MADE my projected excursion to Faversham, and have been rewarded by findingPeucedanumin the very place mentioned in Smith’sEnglish Flora,¹ a very little way out of the town, on the east bank of the river or creek which descends from it to the sea. It is so abundant as to be in no danger of extirpation, and, as you have never been there, it is worth while going to see it. The other plants I found in that neighbourhood areCalamintha Nepeta,almost as profusely as you have described your having found it...

LEPIDIUM RUDERALE, stated in the Report of the Greenwich Natural History Society¹ to have been growing, last year, in the lane which goes out of the south-west corner of Kidbrook Common, is there in profusion this year also; and so many-seeded a plant having found a locality propitious to it, has every chance of remaining there till the botanist's crack of doom, “a trowell ticking against a brick.”²

Mentha Pulegium,another plant in the Society’s general list, is flourishing round a small pond on the eastern edge of Chiselhurst Common.

I have had a day in Tilgate Forest, and have...

IT SEEMS TO BE NOTICED as remarkable (seePhytologist,vol. iv, p. 6) that Mr. Sim foundCheiranthus Cheirion the living rock.¹ It grows profusely on the precipitous part of St. Vincent’s Rock, at the end next Bristol....

THE ENGLISH BOTANIST who has resided or travelled in the countries of southern Europe, and has filled his herbarium with the treasures of their copious Flora, must often have thought, with almost envious regret, of the comparative poverty of our own. But as we have no power to change the lot which in this matter the general arrangements of Nature have assigned to us, we shall do well to look at its brighter side, and find matter for congratulation in some points of superiority which our indigenous Flora, meagre though it be in comparison with those of France and Italy,...

THERE IS HARDLY ANY COUNTRY IN EUROPE whose floral treasures are less known to botanists than those of Spain. That country has produced few indigenous botanists. She possesses, practically speaking, no local Flora; the only one known to Europe being the old, rare, and costly work of Cavanilles, in which, along with such of the native plants as were known in his time, descriptions and figures are given of the American and other exotics cultivated in the Madrid Botanical Garden.¹ There is another book, which the present writer had never heard of, but which he saw on a bookstall at...

OUR ESTEEMED CORRESPONDENT “J.S.M.” in his homeward journey saw much ofVerbascum thapsiformebetween Vienna and Switzerland, in “the Austrian Highlands, where, like many other plants, it grows much more luxuriantly than in the North.” Some good examples of this species have been seen in the Chelsea Botanic Garden....

DR. KING’S LECTURE is an excellent specimen of the lucid and methodical exposition and philosophic views of the nature of classification which characterise the French anatomists and physiologists. It also contains a surprising quantity, considering its shortness, of the most important elementary facts of the human organization, explained in a manner peculiarly well suited, not only to learners, but even to non-medical readers. Dr. King has evidently some of the highest qualities of an able teacher....

THIS is A BOOK to which justice cannot be done without a much fuller notice than can be given in this part of our journal, and we shall probably return to it in a future number. The author (who is the son of the late respected Dr. Lant Carpenter, of Bristol, and who, though still a young man, has long been known as a physiologist of eminence)¹ has not only accumulated in this work a richer store of the mere facts of the science than we believe is to be obtained in the same compass elsewhere, but has displayed in...