December, 1902 311 



A NEW SENECIO HYBRID. 



BY F. W. BURBIDGE, M.A., AND NATHANI^I, COLGAN", M.R.I.A. 



[PI.ATE 5-] 



Amongst the many alien species established in the County 

 Dublin flora, few are more interesting than the Mediterranean 

 Ragwort, known to botanists under the names Seiiecio Cineraria 

 DC, and Cineraria ynaritima Linn. It is now about a quarter 

 of a century since Sir Francis Brad}^ Bart., sowed seeds of the 

 plant in his garden near Dalkey, and adjoining Sorrento Cliffs, 

 as the rocky crescent forming the northern limit of Killiney 

 Bay is not inappropriately called. So congenial did this 

 sheltered sea-nook prove to the southern stranger, that it 

 slowly but steadily pushed its way by wind-borne seeds right 

 round the sweep of rock, until, finally, it succeeded in almost 

 monopolizing it from crest to high-water mark with its ample 

 trusses of silvery white foliage. To-day, the plant is a con- 

 spicuous feature of the coast at this point, so much so that it 

 arrests the attention of even the unbotanical traveller as he 

 journeys by rail from Bra}^ to Kingstown, 



In the summer of 1901 one of us, who has paid special 

 attention to hybrids and hybridising, observed what to less 

 practised eyes would have seemed aberrant forms of this alien 

 Senecio growing in Sorrento Park, a small enclosure of rocky 

 ground which lies inland from the Cliffs, and at certain points 

 approaches them to within a stone's- throw. The aspect of 

 these plants at once suggested to him a natural hybrid, and 

 this suggestion was strengthened by the presence close at 

 hand of likely parents in the Common Ragwort {Se?iecio 

 Jacobcsa L,.) and its Mediterranean congener, .S. Cineraria DC. 

 The suggestion was not followed up at the time ; the plants 

 were variable, and it seemed probable that at least some of 

 them were rather shade-grown states of the Mediterranean 

 species than the result of its natural crossing with our common 

 Ra2:wort. 



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