438 Sir W. J. Hooker on the Erythraea diffusa, 



earliest ; nor had it been eaten by cattle, for most of it was 

 \\ ell protected by the prickles of the Ule.r, among which it 

 grew ; nor was it owing to that shelter, for some of it was in 

 open and exposed situations. In all the appearance was alike, 

 and I should propose to call it Erythraea diffusa ; caulibus dif- 

 Jusis subbifforis. 



a The subulate divisions of the calyx afford here no charac- 

 ter, being sometimes quite as long as the tube of the corolla, 

 and sometimes considerably shorter. I find a specimen of 

 this species in the Herbarium of the late Sir James E. Smith, 

 from the Azores, with a memorandum, in that learned bota- 

 nist's hand-writing, that it is the Chironia maritima of the 

 Hortus Kewensis, but not of Willdenow ; the description of 

 C. maritima in that work is, however, by no means such as 

 would identify the plant, and the principal reason for the sup- 

 position probably is that it is stated to have been introduced 

 from the Azores by F. Masson. The flowers are red." 



Specimens which Mr. Woods kindly communicated to me 

 were sent with my whole collection of Gentianeae to Dr. Gries- 

 bach at Berlin, to assist him in his monograph of that natural 

 order. That gentleman ascertained it to be a plant of Lin- 

 naeus's Supplement, but unknown to every author since the 

 publication of that work, the Gentiana scilloides (Linn, fil.), 

 a species of the " Azores, found by Mr. Francis Masson." It 

 is true that Dr. Griesbach has been led to this determination 

 by description alone ; but the correctness of his judgement is 

 confirmed by the above observation of Mr. Woods, viz. that 

 there exists in the Linnaean Herbarium of Sir J. E. Smith a 

 specimen of the same plant, sent from the Azores by Masson. 



The observations in Dr. Griesbach's letter to me, upon this 

 and other species of Erythraea, will be read with interest. 



" Erythraea diffusa (Woods) is indeed a new and highly in- 

 teresting species, as it will serve to do away with an old name 

 of a now unknown plant, since I cannot doubt this to be the 

 Gentiana scilloides (Linn, fil.), a species insufficiently described, 

 and of which all botanists are ignorant. The obscure terms 

 used in the i Supplement', though coinciding in the more im- 

 portant points with the plant of Mr. Woods, could hardly have 

 suggested the idea that this is an Erythraea, It stands next 



