404 MR. F. TOW^SEND OS AJS EETTHBJEA 



the base of the tube of the corolla, perfectly free above. Anthers 

 yellow, oval, spirally twisted when empty. Ovary cylindrical, 

 about J of its upper portion exserted beyond the corolla-mouth 

 at the time of flowering. Style oblique, short, thread-like, cylin- 

 drical. Stigma greenish yellow, expanding into two roundish 

 flattish lobes. Capsule cylindrical (obtuse?), tipped with the style, 

 imperfectly two-celled, about one third longer than the calyx, its 

 lower two thirds invested with the enlarged marcescent corolla- 

 tube. Seeds small, numerous, irregular in shape, subspheroid, 

 angular, minutely reticulated, dark brown. — In England the 

 plant grows among the short herbage of open chalk-downs and 

 near the sea. It flowers in July and August, and is in fruit in 

 September. It is abundant on the downs of Freshwater towards 

 the east and west. There are two specimens in Mr. Joseph 

 "Woods's herbarium, from " near the signal-post at IVewhaven, 

 Sept. 9, 1836 ; " they are named E. latifolia by Mr. Woods. The 

 only other instance of the probable occurrence of E. capitata var. 

 spliccrocepTiala as an English plant has been furnished me by [the 

 late] Mr. E. A. Pryor, who wrote that, in the Oxford Herbarium, 

 he had examined some specimens, in which both he and Prof. 

 Lawson believed the stamens to be inserted at the base of the 

 corolla-tube. These specimens were, I believe, from Somersetshire. 

 It may be presumed that the duration of the plant is both 

 annual and biennial ; that it is biennial is proved by the following 

 facts. Last season Mr. F. Stratton, at my request, kindly col- 

 lected seeds from Freshwater and sent them to Mr. H. C. Watson, 

 who in September last informed me that he had sown them in 

 pots, that they had germinated and formed young plants, but 

 that they had not thrown up any flowering-stem. On hearing 

 this it occurred to me that the plant might be biennial ; and early 

 in October last I paid a visit to Freshwater in the hopes of finding 

 seedlings from nature's last year's sowing. I was soon rewarded 

 by the sight of numerous healthy young plants in situ, a dozen 

 of which I carefully took up and potted. I have sent three of 

 these to Kew, and three to the Botanic gardens of Cambridge. 

 There is every appearance of these young plants having germi- 

 nated many months since ; the roots are strong, the leaves are 

 well developed in the form of rosettes, but there is no sign of any 

 flowering-stem. I could find no young plants of E. Centaurium 

 or J8. pulcltella, both which species grow abundantly in the same 

 plaee where I gathered E. capitata var. sphcerocephala. "Without 



