MB. HOGG ON FOUE VARIETIES OF BRITISH PLANTS. 133 



On Four Varieties of British Plants. 

 By John Hogg, Esq., M.A., F.E.S., F.L.S., &c. 



[Read Nov. 19th, 1857.] 



I BEG to present to the Linnean Society four or five varieties of 

 British plants, which were collected by myself during the last 

 summer. 



The first is a white-flowered variety of the common scarlet 

 Corn Poppy {^Papaver rhoeas, var. Jlore albo). I gathered a single 

 plant in a potato-field, at some distance from the village of Norton, 

 in the county of Durham, on September 18th. The petals, when 

 fresh, were of a beautifully delicate white colour, having a small 

 dark-red spot at their base. I only once before met with the like 

 variety, which was also near Norton, more than twenty years ago ; 

 and which is recorded in the late Mr. "Winch's ' Flora of Durham 

 and Northumberland.' As far as I can find, no notice is taken of 

 this variety, as a wild plant, in any other Flora of British plants. 



The second is, the European Strawberry-tree, or Arhutus unedo, 

 of which the varieties here presented are Irish specimens. After 

 a search among our English and Irish works on native plants, I 

 was surprised not to find any mention of these very distinct va- 

 riations in the form and breadth of the leaves. The one, which I 

 term var. latifolia, is a truly noble tree, its leaves much resembling 

 those of the bay-tree, or Laurus nohilis, but with their tips often 

 rounded. It is also very robust in its habit, and attains a large 

 size. It was growing in the fissures of the compact grey lime- 

 stone on the margin of the Tore Lake, or as it is otherwise named, 

 the Middle Lake, at Killarney. The second, which I call var. 

 cmgustifolia, I gathered from a small tree deeply rooted in the 

 crevices of the same limestone rock, on the shore of the lower lake, 

 on the same day, Aug. 21st last. This variety possibly agrees vrith 

 the var. 7, salicifolia, ' willow-leaved,' of the London nurserymen, 

 as mentioned at p. 1118 of Loudon's ' Arboretum et Fruticetum 

 Britannicum,' vol. ii. edit. 2. I will not here enter on the dis- 

 puted question of the indigenousness of this beautiful tree, now so 

 abundant about Killarney ; but I will only observe against tho 

 affirmative side, that none of the Arbutus wood has ever, so far as; 

 I could learn from many inquiries in the island, been dug up with 

 the other common sorts of bog-wood, among the peat or bogs of 

 the south-west of Ireland. 



In the town of Killarney there exists a considerable manu- 

 facture of work-boxes, writing-desks, tables, tea-caddies, card- 



