254 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



been separated Ijy British botanists into Geum, elegans, dentnta, Idrsuta, 

 ■nmljrusa, pimctata, and serrata. It has been stated that those of the 

 Pyrenees are jjeculiarly distinct, and that the forms found in Irehind are 

 by no means identical or possessing the same characteristics ; that the 

 truly blunt crenate-leaved variety does not exist in Ireland. The anther 

 considered that all the forms of the Eobertsonian saxifrages found in 

 Ireland, in the south-west parts at certain elevations, were identical with 

 those of similar ranges of elevation in the Pyrenees, and on the mountain 

 ranges of Portugal. The singuhir fact of the peculiarly distinct varieties 

 of form of the saxifrages may arise from their proximity to each other. 

 In testing experiments with the seeds of vmhrosn, he had found that the 

 greater number of the seedling plants assumed the Geum form. All the 

 varieties retained their characters permanently when cultivated from otf- 

 sets. In the second edition of the ' British Flora,' by Sir William 

 Hooker, the subject of the saxifrages, although fully given, is cautiously 

 dilated on, especially with reference to the hypnoid group ; and the 

 observMtions of subsequent years have verified the views that were cer- 

 tainly then formed, — that the opinions of botanists were very variable as 

 to what is and what is not a species. The connnon form of Saxifraga 

 umbrosa of the western parts of Ireland varies much from the true umbrosa 

 of the Pyrenees, the former having the leaves obovate, with sharp cartila- 

 ginous notches, the latter with the leaves bluntly crenate. All the forms 

 of Geum found in Ireland are identical with those of the western parts of 

 Spain and Portugal. Among the forms exhibited was a very fine species 

 of Geum, found in the Great Blasket Island, coast of Kerry, at the 

 extreme western point of that island, exposed to the western gales and 

 sprays of the Atlantic. The drawing of the plant was taken from a spe- 

 cimen in full flower by the late George V. Du Noyer. This beautiful 

 saxifrage is remarkable in having a series of glands of a rich rose colour, 

 surrounding the base of the ovary, which gives a remarkal)lc appearance 

 to its iuHorescence. Mr. A. G. More has noticed at the entrance of Dingle 

 Harbour, exposetl to the spray of the sea, remarkably large and strong 

 forms of Gtmn. The author continued : — " Another form [^S*. Andrewsli\ 

 I wish to exhibit, in order that botanists in their excursions in this coun- 

 try may recognize it by its form of leaves. It has already been described 

 by the late Dr. Harvey, and although so distinct from other forms of 

 vmhrosa in the foliage, yet in that variable group no specific sepai-ation 

 could be formed on such characters. It is in the floral organs that the 

 distinction is maintainable, and these are so remarkable that it would 

 puzzle botanists to assert with certainty how hybridization could have 

 produced characters of the ovary, which cause its affinity to plants whose 

 periods of flowering and perfecting their seeds are at an early and late 

 period of the season. This, as Mr. C. Watson expresses in the ' Cybele 

 Britannica,' is a botanical puzzle, and one that renders it very dithcull to 

 withdraw from its botanical distinctness. I have lately given Mr. A. G. 

 More the exact locality of this rare form, and fully expect that in the 

 course of this summer he will be able to verify this as he has done other 

 of my discoveries. I may refer to some remarkable specimens oS. Saxifraga 

 stellaris obtained on moist rocks in one of those wild mountain retreats 

 near Loc Coomeatheun, county Kerry. It appears very distinct from the 

 more hirsute and more compact forms met on the Connor Cliffs opposite 

 the Brandon range. The floweriii"; stems are of far luore elongated 



