SHORT NOTES. 385 



depredators, who Avould otlierwise rob the plant of its means of sup- 

 port, are deterred from approacliing it." On pages 253, 253, he re- 

 marks that Crithmum marillmum occurs among the ledges and pre- 

 cipices of the cliffs, and gives a description of the gathering of it. It 

 seems that in his days " some little fraud was practised," and the 

 " purchaser furnished with a bastard kind of plant, by no means so fit 

 for medicinal or culinary purposes as the genuine Samphire. This 

 substituted vegetable is called the Inula crithmoides, or Golden 

 Samphire, and gathered with little trouble and no danger on all the 

 sea-beaches in and near the island." The author then proceeds to 

 distinguish between the two plants. Dr. Bromfield remarks (' Flora 

 Vectensis,' p. 254) that perhaps I. crithmoides "would be a good and 

 certainly more accessible substitute." The notice in Warner is in- 

 teresting, as I do not find any earlier record for it (it is given for Hamp- 

 shire in Kay's Cat. Plant. Anglise, 1670) ; and only two localities in 

 the island are given for it by Bromfield, in one of which it is still 

 abundant. In addition to the above phanerogams, Warner gives a 

 icvf seaweeds and lichens. I have given my earliest records for C. ma- 

 ritimum at p. 159, and will now further add that this habitat (Fresh- 

 water) is also given in Coles' 'Adam in Eden,' p. 378 (1657). /. 

 crithmoides does not find a place as an Island plant either in the 

 'Flora Vectiana' (1823), or in Dr. Hooker's recent ' Student's Flora,' 

 though given in Watson's ' Cybele Britannica,' and also in the later 

 ' Compendium.' With reference to Mr. Stratton's statement (p. 259) 

 respecting the first notice of Matthiola incana as an Island plant, 

 I think he has overlooked the foot-note on p. 26 of the ' Flora Vec- 

 tiana,' in which Mr. Snooke remarks, " The cliffs from Compton to 

 Freshwater Gate are covered by a Cheiranlhus not easily accessible, 

 probably C sinuaius.'' The habitat is not given in Watson's * New 

 Botanist's Guide ' (1835). Whilst on the subject of Vectensian plants, 

 I may here mention that Mr. Britten informs me he has in his herba- 

 rium a specimen of Centunculus minimus, labelled " Ex herb. C. P. 

 Hobkirk. Wootton,^I. of Wight. Kev. A. M. Norman, Aug. 1860." 

 Has the plant lately been found in this spot ? — Robert Tucker. 



Gentiana campestris, L. (pp. 160, 356). — Mr. Archer Briggs 

 will see, on referring to the remarks I made on the occurrence of this 

 plant in the Isle of Wight, that I have acted on the advice he gives 

 (p. 356) ; indeed, but few itntumns have passed since my discovery 



VOL. VIII. [DECEMBER 1, 1870.] 2 E 



