Mr. C. C. Babington on Arctium Lappa «?ic? Bardana. 255 



rigid point ; all of them in their lower part and some of the 

 innermost throughout their whole length, are furnished with 

 a very narrow scarious white minutely ciUated not serrulated 

 margin. The leaves are cordate, their margins nearly flat, and 

 fringed with numerous rigid prickles formed by the excurrent 

 points of the nerves. 



The most apparent characters of this plant are its large size, 

 large corymbose heads, and glabrous pale green involucrum. 



2. A, Bardana, Willd. Capitulis racemosis involucri arachnoideo- 

 lanati squamis interioribus coloratis lineari-lanceolatis abrupte 

 mucronatis flosculis brevioribus. 



Arctium Bardana, Willd. Sp. PL iii. 1632. Sm. Engl. Fl. iii. 381. 



A. tomentosum, Schk. iii. 49. Fl. Sil. iii. 104. Fl. Alt. iv. 37. 



Lappa tomentosa, Lam., Diet. I. 377. DC. Prod. vi. 660. Koch, 

 405. Spenn. Fl. Friburg. 490. Peterm. Fl. Lips. 601. 



Here the involucrum is shorter than the florets, the scales 

 are often nearly all purple-coloured, and although most of 

 them are rigid, subulate, and hooked, yet the inner ones, 

 which are linear-lanceolate and contract rather suddenly into 

 an almost straight rigid point, are more numerous in propor- 

 tion than they are in A. Lappa. Here the outer scales are 

 fringed as in the former plant, but the inner ones, which are 

 always coloured purple, are minutely serrulated throughout. 

 The leaves are much smaller, less wavy at their margins, and 

 fewer of the nerves appear to be excurrent, although I have 

 seen them quite as numerous as in A. Lappa. 



This species is distinguished at a glance by its smaller size, 

 small racemed heads, and more or less woolly and coloured in- 

 volucrum. 



I do not pretend to say that these plants are really distinct 

 species, but am certainly inclined to consider them as deser- 

 ving of that rank: — for although I 'have looked carefully for 

 them, yet intermediate states have not come under my notice 

 since I have been famiHar with the living plants : my wish is 

 to call the attention of English botanists to a neglected genus 

 in our native Flora. It is probable that both plants are com- 

 mon throughout the country, but A. Bardana appears to be 

 rather the more frequent. 



St. John's Coll. Cambridge, Oct. 12, 1839. 



