rUMAKIA CAPEEOLATA OF BRITAIN. 161 



The size of the fruit separates F. muralis from its allies : it is 

 much smaller and also much rounder. The other species now 

 under consideration have fruits all very nearly equal in size, although 

 diftering in form. 



There is a curious spur attached to, and apparently forming a 

 continuation backwards of, the agglutinated filaments of the upper 

 cluster of stamens. It is directed backwards into the spur of the 

 upper petal, and may possibly furnish characters by which to 

 assist in distinguishing species. I believe that the credit of first 

 calling attention to it belongs to Parlatore, who describes and 

 figures it in his ' Monografia.' My acquaintance with it is very 

 slight, my attention having only recently been directed to it. If 

 we may judge from books, few botanists appear to know of its 

 existence. 



I have failed in detecting any constant characters in the leaves, 

 the forms and sizes of which are very variable. Neither does the 

 erect or rampant or prostrate state of the stem seem to be of much 

 consequence. When writing about F. confusa (my F. agrarid) in 

 the ' Eotanical Gazette,' I remarked that the stem was erect in 

 the earlier, and procumbent in the later part of the summer. 

 Such I suspect to be also the case in the other plants now under 

 consideration. 



The differences which are found in the forms and proportions of 

 the sepals and of the bracts will be noticed under the several spe- 

 cies, as will be also the colour of the corolla and the direction of 

 the fruit-bearing pedicels. 



The only British plant which can be confounded with these 

 Go/preolatce is the diffuse state of F, officinalis. It is perhaps often 

 called F. capreolata by careless observers ; and its being distributed 

 by them with that name has tended to confuse the ideas of better 

 botanists who have only had the dried specimens before them. 

 Amongst nearly allied and similar-looking plants, it is often better 

 to append no name to a specimen than to risk the application of a 

 wrong one. This rampant form of F. officinalis agrees in nearly all 

 respects with the erect and typical form of that species. Its spikes 

 of fruit are very long and lax ; its fruits are obovate-retuse, with 

 a very faintly marked base and decidedly rugose surface ; its lower 

 petal is spathulate, being linear with the exception of a round 

 dilatation at the end. As far as I am able to ascertain, the spikes 

 of all these Capreolatce are always much shorter ; their fruits are 

 never retuse, have always a marked base, and a surface which is 

 not rugose, although sometimes slightly rough when dry ; their 



