240 STATIONS OF, AND REMARKS ON, SOME PLYMOUTH PLANTS. 



bifid ; the ' flosculi ' are the flowers, usually, as stated, teruate ; the 

 sepals, being coloured internally, were mistaken for petals ; and the petals 

 themselves, being less than half as long the sepals, and furnished with a 

 foveola and gland, were described as ' nectarii foveola.' The fruit is ia 

 reality a drupe, composed of three confluent 1-celled 1-seeded pyrense ; 

 and it must have been imperfect examination which led Loureiro to 

 describe it as 1-celled and 4-seeded. His account of the habit and 

 specific characters of the plant is good. Its employment, recorded by 

 Dr. Bn'dfiman, by the poorer Chinese as a succedaneum for tea, seems 

 dictated by a not unwise instinct, since Endlicher observes (Enchirid. 

 Bot. 524) : " Grewia Microcos cortice amaro-aromatico foliisque adstriu- 

 gentibus commendatur." 



It follows from the above that Jrsis nujosa, Lour., given by all writers 

 as a synonym of Grewia Microcos, must be a different plant. To judj^e 

 from the description, it is most likely a Grewia with exinvolucrate cyraules, 

 belonging to the section OmpJiacarpus* 



STATIONS OP, AND REMAEKS ON, SOME PLYMOUTH 



PLAiNTS. 



By T. R. Archer Brigos. 



Ranuncnhis avricomns, L. This is local about Plymouth, and it 

 seems that very few stations are recorded for it across the Tamar, in 

 Cornwall. It occurs in the east of this county, on a bank (for about 

 twenty yards) by the Torpoint and Liskeard turnpike, close to the en- 

 trance gate to Sconner House grounds ; also, but very sparingly, by the 

 same road, close to the seventh milestone from Torpoint. 



'Ranunculus hirsntns, Curt. Sometimes this appears only as a casual 

 in waste spots by salt water and in arable land, but it is at least a 

 colonist at St. John's, Cornwall, about four miles from Plymouth ; and 

 this summer (1871) I have found it so plentiful in a marsh at the head 

 of Denabole " Lake," a tidal inlet from the Lynher, in the same county, 

 that I should consider it a native if there were not a flour-mill near. In 

 May, 1868, it occurred in damp spots in a lane near a farmhouse, a little 

 to the north-west of Battisborough Cross, as well as in a field near. The 

 lighter hue of both its foliage and flowers renders it distinguishable from 

 R. bulbosus and R. repens at some ilistance. 



Ranunculus arve)isis, L. Very rare, and only as acasuul. Pour plants 

 among-st wheat in tlie field opposite Antony Lodge, near Torpoint, Corn- 

 wall, May, 1871. 



Helleborus viridis, L. This is generally seeti growing in a patch or 

 two in an orchard, or on a hedgebank by an old garden, — as at Trehan, 

 in the parish of St. Stephen, Cornwall, where it occurs near plants of 

 Sedum Telepkiuni., a species very frequently met with close to old farm- 

 houses or villages, but rarely found in wilder spots. At Pill, near 



* An examination of Loureiro's specimens of Arsis in the British Museum 

 appears to sustain Dr. Hance's sunnise as to the absence of an involucre. In 

 other respects they are very similar to G. Microcos, L., slightly dift'cu-ing, however, in 

 being more glabrous, having fewer- flowered panicles and smaller leaves. tJnfor- 

 tunately there is no specimen of Fallopia among Loureiro's plants. — H. T. 



