RAMBLE IN THE N. OF SPAIN. 113 



though miicli larger and more luxuriant than when growing on the 

 chalky downs about Lewes. Linum angustifolium is so abundant 

 as to form in many pastures a considerable portion of the herbage. 

 Two rarer plants, Melilotus mes^anensis and M. parvijlortts, grow 

 by the side of the embryo railway. 



Almost everywhere about Santander we find a Baphcmus, which 

 I believe to be the B. Landra of the South of Europe. At the 

 beginning of May the pods had uniformly one cell and one seed ; 

 as the season advanced the number of joints increased, and before 

 I came away I found one or two pods with six joints. At that 

 time the plant seemed to have attained its full development, and 

 the more perfect pods (for there were still many of one or two 

 joints) seemed originally to be furnished with five or six ovules, 

 one or two of w^hich were frequently abortive, leaving isthmuses 

 in the pods. In all this it approaches to B. maritimus, and no 

 satisfactory distinction has been pointed out between them. 



These notes relate to my first arrival at Santander. A few days 

 afterwards Serapias cordigera began to show its dark purple flowers 

 in the meadows, frequently growing in company with Orchis lati- 

 folia. Serapias Lingua appears a little later. This is chiefly di- 

 stinguished by the gland at the base of the label, which in >S'. cor- 

 digera is divided by a deep furrow through its whole length. In 

 S, Jjingua it is so divided only at its base, while the extremity is 

 rounded and entire, or only marked by a slight dimple. Unfor- 

 tunately these glands shrink almost to nothing in drying, and no 

 distinct character can then be observed in them. Nevertheless 

 the plants are still readily known by the smaller and fewer flowers 

 of 8. Lingua^ by the smaller label and narrow form of its middle 

 lobe, 8. oxy glottis of Bertoloni is a mere synonym of 8. Linguay 

 and its admission into the ' Tourist's Flora' was an error. 8. longi- 

 pefala is separated from 8. cordigera not only by its narrower 

 label, but by the flowers disposed in a lengthened spike, while in 

 aS*. cordigera they are always approximated at the top of the scape. 

 Amidst the great abundance of >S'. cordigera I was in hopes of 

 finding the 8. triloba of Yiviani, but I looked in vain. A com- 

 parison of specimens satisfies me that the plant of Lloyd (Flore 

 de la Loire inferieure) is the same as that of the Grenoese 

 botanist, and this, according to Grodron, is a hybrid between 8. 

 cordigera and Orchis lasijlora. I did not see the latter species in 

 Spain. 



Towards tlie end of May Oralis corniculata makes its appear- 

 ance, and another Oxalis, which covers the ground under the 



LINN. PBGC. — BOTANY. I 



