70 ON CANARIAN AND MADEIRAN 



am strongly inclined to suspect that it was rather constituted chiefly, 

 if not wholly, by its author, on his notes or recollections merely of the 

 Madeiran R. grandifolius, gathered, as he says, with me in Ribeiro Frio 

 in 1828 ; for if founded with Madeiran specimens before him, he could 

 scarcely have passed over without notice the soft, silky, adpressed, not 

 patent, strigose, or bulbous hairs, on which he dwells so much in his 

 description, and other points at variance with his own exact account of 

 the Canarian plant, nor have placed silently R. grandifolius as a syno- 

 nym to the latter. And it is even more improbable, that had he pos- 

 sessed a genuine Canarian specimen, really agreeing with the Madeiran 

 plant, that he would have constituted with it his var. /3, without ob- 

 serving its essential difference from a. His characters, synonymy, and 



remarks on /3, are, in short, alike consistent with the idea that it was 

 founded rather on imperfect notes or memory than on specimens, 

 though it may possibly have been intended also to include some large, 

 luxuriant state of the true Canarian plant ; and it is very remarkable, 

 in confirmation of this view, that neither in the Banksian nor Hookerian 

 Herbaria are found Canarian specimens from either Webb himself, or 

 Bourgeau, or any other person, even purporting to be R. cortustefolius, 

 /3, sylvaticus, of Webb. 



It. GRANDIFOLIUS, Lowe. 



R. subvilloso-pubescens hirsutiusculus, pilis sericeis simplicibus, caulinis 

 adpressis ; caule plerumque robusto erecto elato ramoso corymboso 

 multifloro ramis patentibus subdivaricatis ; fol. rigidiusculis subcoria- 

 ceis immacuiatis, radicalibus 2 v. 3 amplis orbiculato-reniformibus, 

 ssepius subindivisis v. obtuse inciso-lobatis rarius pinnati-partitis, 

 acute tenuiterque crebridentatis ; caulinis 3-5-partitis, summis ses- 

 silibus simplicibus lanceolatis integerrimis ; fl. dense corymbosis mag- 

 nis, sep. patentibus ; spicis abbreviatis obtusis globoso-ovalibus raro 



oblongis ; ach. glaberrimis. 

 a. major; caule robusto elato 2-4-pedali; fol. lucidis radicalibus am- 



plissimis 5-12 poU. latis orbicularibus subindivisis obtuse lobatis nee 



partitis ; corymbo vasto multifloro, fl. maximis ; spicis ovali-globosis. 

 R. grandifolius, Lowe! Prim. (Edit. 1. 1830) 38, non Meyer; Walp. 



Rcpert. 1. 36. 

 R. Creticus 9 Lowe ! Prim. (Edit. 2, 1851) App. v. vi., non Linn. 

 R. Oreticus, Solander in Herb. Banks. ! non Linn. 



