ONOSMAS OF LINNÆUS AND SIBTHORT. 399 
pieces sine loco. One is at Oxford, the other at Kew; the latter having 
formed part of the herbarium of R. C. Alexander, who afterwards took the 
name of Prior. At one time he worked under Dr. Daubeny, the Curator of 
the Oxford Herbarium, who probably gave him this sheet, with the usual 
contempt of that date for * mere duplicates." The pieces on this Kew sheet 
obviously come from Attica, being identical with numerous examples from 
Hymettus. 
The Oxford examples, however, consisting of three pieces on one sheet, are 
very remarkable. It is equally obvious on comparison that these do not 
come from any part of Greece, but from Sicily, being exactly O. canescens 
Presl = O. echioides var. crinitum mihi, a form peculiar to that island and 
very closely related to Columna’s Apennine plant, yet differing from that 
and from erectum, either of Crete or Attica, by its yellow tinge in sicco, and 
in its remarkable shagginess, being clothed with copious spreading bristles, 
those of the stem exceeding in length its diameter. The corollas are pub- 
escent, Sibthorp did not visit western Sicily, where this Onosma frequentiy 
occurs and whence come practically all the examples to be seen in herbaria ; 
but he was at Messina, and the Flerence herbarium contains one sheet, no. 36, 
of specimens from Monte Scuderi, half-way between Messina and Taormina, 
which are absolutely identical with those at Oxford. This should not lead us 
to think O. erectum a nomen confusum, for the description, the habitat, the 
Kew specimens, and above all the figure in ‘Flora Græca” completely 
outweigh the discrepant origin of the Oxford specimens. Whether the 
monographer of the future will unite erectum to echioides (Columna) as a 
subspecies peculiar to Greece is another question. 
No. 425. O. fruticosum, a very distinct shrubby species from Cyprus, figured 
in Fl. Gr. t. 174, of which the herbarium contains a specimen. It is 
strange that Boissier should have overlooked Sibthorp’s name, which 
dates from 1806, the year of pages 1-218 of the ‘ Prodromus,’ in favour 
of ©. fruticosum Labill., Syr. Dee. iii. p. 10, which is the same Cyprian 
plant, but was not published till 1809. Ind. Kew. too, which as 
usual in such cases copies Boissier, ignores Sibthorp in favour of 
Labillardiére. 
Sibthorp’s herbarium further contains an unnamed specimen, sine loco, 
differing from any of the above. It is asterotrichous, with oblong, obtuse 
leaves, not revolute at the margins, scabrous but hardly strigose, with remark- 
ably short calyces and strongly pubescent corollas. It is not in very good 
condition. As yet I have found no match for it in the herbaria I have been 
able to consult. It may perhaps be the form called echioides var. brachycalyw 
by Haláesy, of which I have not seen an example. The sheet has a label (not 
Sibley’s nor Smith's) attached, reading * Herb. Sibthorp. South or Europe 
97." 
