The Scottish Naturalist, 179 



In other respects T. agrarium may be at once distinguished 

 from the usual form of T. procumbens, by its upright g ^^th, the 

 erect patent branches, foliage of a paler green, larger flower heads 

 with peduncles subequal in length to the leaf which subtends them, 

 flowers of a deeper yellow, and somewhat differently shaped leaves. 

 It must be remembered, however, that there are two forms of T. 

 procumbens, one of which resembles T. agrarium in several re- 

 spects. This form is the var. majus Koch (T. campestrt Schreb., 

 T. agrarium Gmel.), which has the primary stem erect, with 

 patent branches ; larger flower heads with peduncles subequal to 

 the leaf; and darker yellow flowers. This form I have not ob- 

 served in Perthshire. The var. minus Koch (T. procumbens 

 Schreb. T. pseudo-procu?nbens Gmel.) is the only form I have seen 

 in Perthshire, and is distinguished from var. majus by its generally 

 procumbent stems, smaller flower heads, with peduncles often 

 twice as long as the leaf, and paler flowers. Koch observes that 

 one variety passes insensibly into the other. 



In the older British Floras, and in more recent continental 

 works, there is much confusion in the nomenclature of the species 

 ot the group to which T. agrariu?n belongs, chiefly because of the 

 difficulty of identifying from the descriptions of Linnaeus the 

 plants to which he had given the names. Dr. Boswell has, how- 

 ever, shown in his edition of English Botany, that the plant now 

 referred by British authors to T. procumbens L. is the T. procumbens 

 of Linnaeus' herbarium ; and that the T. agrarium of the herbarium 

 is he plant described as T. agrarium L. by Koch in his Synopsis 

 Florae Germanicae (ed. 2). (As an example of the confusion of 

 names, it may be mentioned that Grenier and Godron, in the "Flore 

 de France," have described T. minus Sm. under the name of 1. pro- 

 cumbens L. ; T. procumbens L. as T. agrariu?n L., and the true T. 

 agratium under its synonym T. aureum Poll.). It is perhaps 

 doubtful whether the T. agrarium of Linnaeus' Species Plantarum 

 is the same as the T. aparium of the Linnean herbarium. 



It remains to be considered whether our specimens of T. agrarium 

 are to be regarded as truly native, or as having been accidentally 

 introduced. In France T. agrarium is a much less common plant 

 than T. procumbens, though widely distributed. It is said to occur 

 in woods and hilly pastures. In Germany, Switzerland, &c, it is 

 a common plant in mountain meadows and at the borders of 

 woods. In Scandinavia it is widely distributed. In Perthshire, 

 Colonel Drummond Hay and I found it in a rough hilly pasture 

 (uncultivated ground), near Loch Cluny, and here it has every 

 appearance of being a native. I have also found it in pastures 

 near Forteviot, but as the ground is cultivated it might have been 

 introduced. I think that I have also seen it on banks near Dun- 

 keld. Probably now that attention has been directed to the plant 

 it will be found in other places. F. Buchanan White. 



[It is by no means uncommon in fields and on roadside banks 



