178 The Scottish Naturalist. 



" declivities many feet below," the summit of Ben Nevis being 

 almost destitute of plants, does not disprove Don's assertion. 



This is probably overlooked from its similarity to forms of pro- 

 cumbens, and, as the Caltha has been, will doubtless eventually 

 be rediscovered. 

 Stella ria scapigera Willd. 



" We now believe the plant to exist nowhere in a wild state, but 

 to be a mere cultivated form of graminea. Don cultivated it ex- 

 tensively in his garden at Forfar. It was originally described by 

 Willdenow from a plant in the Berlin garden. He does not say 

 from whom it was received, but it is not even conjectured to have 

 been from Scotland, and has not been found anywhere else. It 

 increases rapidly by division, but not by seed, although that 

 sometimes is freely produced. In the Glasgow Botanic Garden, 

 S. graminea springs up in the vicinity of pots in which .S. scapigera 

 had been cultivated." Arnotfs Br. Flora. 



TBIFOLIUM AGK.AKIUM L, AS A PKOBABLE BEITISH PLANT. 



IN 1872, Colonel Drummond Hay and I, when botanising be- 

 tween Dunkeld and Loch Cluny, found a clover which we^. 

 having access at the time to books treating only of the British 

 Flora, put down as a very curious form of Trifolium procumbens L. 

 Somehow or other I neglected to preserve specimens, and it is- 

 only recently that, in going over the Perthshire Herbarium of the 

 Perthshire Society of Natural Science, with a view to the speedy 

 publication of the Flora of Perthshire, I came across a specimen 

 preserved by Colonel Drummond Hay, and found that without 

 doubt it belongs to Trifolium agrarium L. This was not alto- 

 gether unexpected, since several years ago Professor Trail told me 

 that he had found near Aberdeen that two distinct species were 

 confounded together under the name of T. procumbens, — T. p?v- 

 cumbens and T. agrarium. Last year I again found the plant 

 growing near Forteviot, and determined that as soon as I could 

 get the opportunity I would compare it with the descriptions in 

 some of the standard continental floras. 



As doubtless the plant occurs elsewhere in Scotland, an indica- 

 tion of the points in which it diners from T. procwnbens will assist 

 botanists in detecting it. 



T. agrarium L. 



Stipules oblong lanceolate, 

 equal and not enlarged at the 

 base. 



Leaves with the middle leaf- 

 let without a longer petiole 

 than the lateral ones. 



Style subequal in length to 

 the legume. 



T. PROCUMBENS L. 



Stipules half-ovate, enlarged 

 and rounded at the base on 

 the outer side. 



Leaves with the middle leaf- 

 let with a distinctly longer pe- 

 tiole than the lateral ones. 



Style only about one quarter 

 the length of the legume. 



