P. paradoxa, as such we have referred to his figure, in the synonyms of the double variety; and our P. paradoxa I have before stated to be in my opinion the P. peregrina α. of M. De Candolle.
The P. laciniata in like manner is founded on a single authority only, that of Willdenow's Enumeratio. Willdenow's plant came from Siberia; and it night be suspected that he had got Pallas's P. laciniata, which is the P. anomala of Linnæus and all subsequent writers, and had erroneously considered it distinct, being misled by the name, but that he describes it "capsulis tomentosis." This circumstance (since it cannot be admitted that it is another species, or it would have found its way to other collections from the Berlin garden,) makes it probable that Willdenow's P. laciniata was only a strong-growing plant of P. tenuifolia, perhaps in the very state figured by Pallas as P. hybrida. M. De Candolle has described his P. laciniata with "capsulis tomentosis patentibus;" the addition of this latter term not being a part of Willdenow's description.
North Mimms,
20th December, 1817.
