I.902. BuRBiDGK & CoLGAN. — A New Senecio Hybrid. 313 



paid to the Cliffs and the adjacent sea-banks in the interval 

 between June 6th and August 28th of this year, and the result 

 of careful observation was to show that the order of flowering 

 of the three plants was, first, S. Cineraria ; second, the inter- 

 mediate, or hybrid ; and, last, S.Jacobcsa. Flower buds showed 

 clearly on the first two plants on the 6th June, while no trace 

 of them was to be seen on the neighbouring S. Jacobcsa ; on 

 the 14th June a few heads of S. Cine} aria were in full flower, 

 and some of the intermediate's buds had just began to show 

 the yellow of the opening ray-florets ; on July 7th many heads 

 of S^ Cineraria and a few of the intermediate were in full 

 flower, while the 5^ellow of the opening ray-florets of S. Jacobcea 

 had just began to appear ; on July 24th all three plants were 

 well in flower. 



Two leading forms of the intermediate were readily dis- 

 tinguishable. These may be called a and b. In a the corymb 

 branches were divaricate, and, so far, the form approached to 

 S. Cineraria ; but in other characters, and notably in the 

 tenuity of the tomentum on stem and leaves and in the leafi- 

 ness of the corymb branches, it suggested S.Jacobcsa, to which 

 species it came closer in general aspect. Similarl}^, with form b 

 there w^as the same conflict of tendencies, the same hesitation 

 about taking a decided line. The ascending habit of its 

 corymb branches was strongly reminiscent of S. Jacobcea, but 

 the comparative nakedness of its less ample inflorescence and 

 the greater density of the tomentum on stem and leaf gave 

 the form a general aspect of S. Cineraria. Of the two forms, 

 a was by far the more distinct and the more frequent, and we 

 have no hesitation in selecting it as the typical hybrid. 



The points just touched on are the more obvious field marks 

 of the hybrid. A fuller statement of its distinctive characters 

 and of those of the parent species will now be given. At this 

 stage the necessit\^ of naming the plant presents itself, and the 

 quCvStions aiise — is it non-descript ? and, if not, has its hybrid 

 origin been previously proved or suggested? Focke, in his 

 Pflanze7i-Mischli7ige, makes no reference to any such hybrid. 

 Neither Boissier {Flor. Orie?it.) nor Willkomm and lyange 

 {Prod. Flor. Hisp.) mentions any variety of ►S*. Cineraria as 

 occurring either in the eastern or in the western Mediterranean 



A 2 



