| 
3 
| 
f 
: 
| 
f 
SOME CRITICAL SPECIES OF ECHIUM. 415 
is not really applicable to any European species except Æ. parviflorum, 
Moench, E. arenarium, Guss., and the small-flowered form of Æ. vulgare 
known as Æ. Wierzbickii. These are all out of the question and have never 
been suggested as the species intended by Linnæus; we are therefore 
dependent on the synonyms, and on the specimen that exists in the herbarium, 
to ascertain what Linnæus meant. 
Both synonyms and specimen belong to the very remarkable perennial 
Echium from Portugal and north-western Spain that has been named by 
Sampaio * K. Broteri, because it is the Echium italicum of Brotero, non Linn., 
=F. italicum var. lusitanicum, Hotfmg. et Link. I have flowered at Selham 
in Sussex in 1918 several plants of this chium from seed sent by Prof. 
Coutinho of Lisbon. In good soil from ten to twenty ascending flowering 
stems issue from beneath the great central rosette of leaves, which remains 
flat on the ground. The inflorescence of each of these lateral stems, when 
normally developed is not unlike that of E. vulgare, but if the growth of their 
axis has been ehecked from any cause the upper cincinni when fully unfurled 
in fruit appear almost corymbose, as is the case in the Linnean specimen. 
Brotero's description of his Æ. italicum in Fl. Lus. i. p. 290 (1804), is very 
full. Link in Hoffmg. & Link, Fl. Port. i. p. 185 (1809), calls it * accurata." 
Other characterisations may be read in Coutinho, as Boraginaceas de 
Portugal in Bol. Soc. Broter. xxi. p. 113 (1905), in the same author's Fl. 
Port. p. 499 (1913), and in Merino, Fl. de Galicia, ii. p. 155 (1906). 
Coutinho gives characters to distinguish the speeies from the nearly allied 
E. salmanticum, Lag.= E. polycaulon, Boiss. Brotero says: * Caules quinque 
ad duodecim ex eadem radice, sub rosula foliorum radicalim, primum obliqui, 
dein ineurvati, erectiusculi, bipedales et ultra. . .. folia radicalia in orbem 
prostrata, pedalia et longiora, ad medium biuncialia aut latiora, lanceolata .... 
spice ad quinquaginta et ultra, spiraliter reeurvie, fere ex imo caule usque 
ad ejus apicem." The habit of Æ. salmanticum is thus described by J. Gay 
in a MS. note on plants grown in the Jardin des Plantes : * caulibus ex una 
radice pluribus, rosule centrali subjectis . . . . Il forme une énorme touffe de 
2-3 pieds haut.” This character in Æ. salmanticum led Gay to suppose that 
it was the plant intended by Brotero, and in his MS. notes he proposed the 
name /. Broterianum for it, a misnomer fortunately not published. Gay also 
knew the true Æ. Broteri, which he regarded as Æ. lusitanicum, and indicated 
the distinctions. The corolle are quite different in the two species. 
The habitat known to Brotero was “in sabulosis ad Villa Franca, ad Mun- 
dam prope Conimbricam (Coimbra) et alibi in Beira.” Hoffmg. & Link say 
* contrées élevées du Portugal, entre Caldas de Gerez et Portela do Homem 
en abondance. De méme dans la Serra d'Estrella, d’ou la rivière du Mondego 
la transporte dans les sites inférieurs prés de Coimbra, ete." It was collected 
* [n herb. Acad, Polyt. Brot. et in Lusitano, 12 Jan. 1900, ex Coutinho in Bol. Soc. Brot. 
xxi, p. 118 (1904). 
