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HAMBLE Il!f THE N. OF SPAIN. 113 



though mucli larger and more luxuriant than when growing on the 

 chalky downs about Lewes. Idntm mgustifolium is so abundant 

 as to form in many pastures a considerable portion of the herbage. 

 Iwo rarer plants, Melilotus messanensis and Jf. parvijlortts, grow 

 by the side of the embryo railway. 



Almost everywhere about Santander we find a Baphunus, which 

 I believe to be the iJ. Landra of the South of Europe. At the 

 beginning of May the pods had uniformly one cell and one seed ; 

 as the season advanced the number of joints increased, and before 

 I came away I found one or two pods with six joints. At that 

 time the plant seemed to have attained its full development, and 

 the more perfect pods (for there were still many of one or two 

 jomts) seemed originally to be furnished with five or six ovules, 

 one or two of which were frequently abortive, leaving isthmuses 

 m the pods. In all this it approaches to i?, maritimuSj and no 

 satisfactory distinction has been pointed out between them. 



These notes relate to my first arrival at Santander. A few days 

 afterwards Serapias cardigera began to show its dark purple flowers 

 itt the meadows, frequently growing in company with Orchis lati- 

 folia. Serapias Lingua appears a little later. This is chiefly di- 

 stinguished by the gland at the base of the label, which in 8. cor- 

 digera is divided by a deep furrow through its whole length. In 

 «, Lingtia it is so divided only at its base, while the extremity is 

 rounded and entire, or only marked by a slight dimple. Unfor- 

 tunately these glands shrink almost to nothing in drying, and no 

 distinct character can then be observed in them. Nevertheless 

 the plants are still readily known by the smaller and fewer flowers 

 of 8. Lingiui, by the smaller label and narrow form of its middle 

 lobe. 8. oxyglottis of Bertoloni is a mere synonym of 8. Lingua, 

 and its admission into the * Tourist's Flora' was an error. S. longi- 

 pefala is separated from 8. cordigera not only by its narrower 

 label, but by the flowers disposed in a lengthened spike, while in 

 S' cordigera they are always approximated at the top of the scape. 

 Amidst the great abundance of 8. cordigera I was in hopes of 

 finding the 8. tHloha of Viviani, but I looked in vain. A com- 

 parison of specimens satisfies me that the plant of Lloyd (Flore 

 de la Loire inferieure) is the same as that of the Genoese 

 Wanist, and this, according to Godron, is a hybrid between S, 

 cordigera and Orchij^ laaijlora. I did not see the latter species in 

 Spain. 



Towards the end of May Oxalis eomiculata makes its appear- 

 ^ce, and mother Omlis, which covers the ground under the 



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