Dr. G. A. Walker-Arnott on Hypericum Anglicum. 363 



Mr. Babington's character, except one from "Hills behind 

 Greenock/' which I found in the herbarium of the late Mr. D. 

 Steuart of Edinburgh, but without any indication of the precise 

 locality, the person by whom or the date when collected, although 

 various circumstances connected with my late friend lead me to 

 suppose that he had either collected or received it prior to 1818. 

 This specimen agreed so well with 'Mr. Babington's description, 

 that I could not doubt of its being the same species which he 

 had in view, although in mine the pedicels and peduncles were 

 certainly not winged — a point which he and Bertoloni considered 

 of great importance. In all the species of Hypericum the leaves are 

 opposite and decussate ; and it usually results from this mode of 

 arrangement that herbaceous stems, or the herbaceous or young 

 parts of woody stems, are 2-edged or 4-angled, but that after 

 the leaves cease, and there are no large bracts to fulfil their 

 functions, the peduncles are irregularly angled or terete. When 

 there are four sepals, and these of large size, we often find the 

 pedicels 2-4-angled ; but when there are five, or when they are 

 small, vegetable physiology shows that we cannot expect this 

 appearance, or, when it is observed, must conclude that it is 

 accidental, and not a peculiarity of the species. I was therefore 

 not disposed to consider the wings on the peduncles mentioned 

 by Bertoloni to be of any importance for distinguishing the spe- 

 cies — if, indeed, he had not been deceived by a much-pressed, 

 dried specimen. 



H. elatum of Aiton is said to have been introduced to our 

 gardens in 1762 ; but as yet its native country is undetermined : 

 at one time it was supposed to have been brought from North 

 America, but it is now well ascertained not to be indigenous 

 there. On comparing H. Anglicum from Greenock with a culti- 

 vated specimen named H. elatum, which I have from the late Mr. 

 Brodie's herbarium, their identity was so apparent that I was 

 disposed at once to cancel the former name ; but I was deterred 

 by the description given by Spach of his Androscemum parvi- 

 fiorum (Ann. Sc. Nat. 2 me ser. v. p. 361), which was taken from 

 a cultivated specimen of H. elatum, Ait. (not Desrousseaux), in 

 which he states that the flowers are not much larger than in H. 

 Androscemum, and that the sepals become much enlarged as the 

 fruit advances towards maturity, — neither of which characters 

 applied to what I had before me. I am now quite satisfied, 

 however, that they are the same, and that the sepals vary much 

 in size on the same branch, and sometimes in the same corymb ; 

 indeed, they may occasionally be seen small long after the 

 petals fall away, while they are large in some of the flower-buds. 

 The size of the flowers appears to depend much on the humidity 

 of the situation. 



24* 



