SOME CRITICAL SPECIES OF ECHIUM. 397 
Selham, Sussex, identical with the Linnean specimen. The later sowing 
shows diffuse lower branches lying on the ground, which explain the * eaule 
procumbente" of the misquotation (see below) in Sp. Pl. p. 139. The 
corollas vary in the same plant from 28 to 35 mm., but hardly attain the 
largest Algerian size. 
The herbarium specimen of Æ. ereticum consists of two pieces on the same 
sheet, possibly from the same plant. The larger is the upper part, about 
35 em. long, of a plant in flower with a branched stem. The six branches 
vary from 11 to 15 em. in length. They are therefore approximately equal, 
giving an appearance of a diffuse habit. In this piece the lower calyces are 
as much as 2 em. apart and barely 1 cm. long. They are exceeded by the 
bracts, the lower of which are sub-foliaceous, but the middle and upper 
exactly match those similarly placed in Æ. grandiflorum, Desf., being broadly 
ovate at the base and acuminate, with the two sides conspicuously unequal. 
The smaller piece is a single branch in fruit, 26 cm. long, but not yet fully 
extended as the uppermost corollas are still in flower. This has fruiting 
ealyces only 1 em. apart, but 1-14 em. long with unequal laciniæ. 
The corollas are very oblique, shaped as in Æ. grandiflorum, about 2:5 em. 
long in sicco, and less than 1 em. wide at the throat, softly pubescent outside 
without long hairs on the veins ; the lower lobes shortly and closely ciliate, 
but the upper without cili. The stamens are shorter than the upper lobes 
and are best described as subexsert; they are very hairy. The colour of the 
corola is now a dark dingy purple (quite unlike that of the specimen of 
violaceum, which has dried blue), and has obviously been red in the living 
plant. The leaves vary from ovate to oval, being much broader (8-10 em. 
by 3-4 em.) than in any of the specimens of grandiflorum from south-eastern 
Franee, but only a little broader than in some of those from the Spauish 
border and from Algeria. The lateral veins are conspicuous, as shown in 
Desfontaines's figure of grandiflorum. Their indumentum is dimorphous, 
with few long bristles arising from inconspicuous tubercles, It is, in fact, 
that of grandiflorum, but scantier, which I attribute to the effect of cultiva- 
tion. As in that species the dried plant is the colour of tobacco. 
To sum up: this plant appears to be a garden form of grandiflorum with a 
more widely branching habit and wider leaves than normal. Though 
identical in shape, pubescence, and eolour, the corollas are not so large as in 
fine specimens of grandiflorum. Desfontaines’s figure (Fl. Atl. tab. 46) shows 
a less widely branching plant with narrower steni-leaves than the Linnean 
specimen of ereticum, which is well represented by the figure in Sweet’s Brit. 
Flower Garden, tab. 101 (April 1st, 1825), under the name of E. australe. 
This was a garden plant grown from seeds received from Germany under 
that name. Sweet’s description is well worth consulting. 
Specimens corresponding with that of Linnzeus are not uncommon in the 
old herbaria, They all are undoubtedly taken from garden plants. 
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