TWO HYBRID EPILOBIA NEW TO BBITAIN. 



101 



sceptical on the question of hybridity may adopt Hausskneclit's 

 synonym, J'\ rivuUcoliun ; but I take this opportunity of protesting 

 against the custom of encumbering our botanical literature with a 

 number of unnecessary names for plants which are classed as 

 hybrids on good grounds. To say nothing of the patent absurdity 

 of giving quasi-specific rank to forms whicli are not put forward as 

 true species, the great variability of hybrids renders tUe adoption 

 of any given "type" almost an impossibility. I must own to 

 having been an offender in the past, by giving such names to 

 K. hirsutum X lanceolatum and E. liirsiituin X obscmniDi, and much 

 regret having done so. On the other hand, when a plant has been 

 described in good faith as a species, and afterwards turned out to 

 be a hybrid (e.g. Jmiciis dlfusus Hoppe), the specific name may 

 well be retained as a synonym, in brackets. 



2. E. LANCEOLATUM X RosEUM. On May 23rd, 1894, Capt. 

 Wolley Dod showed me E. lanceolatum, E. rosewn, and three or 

 four other species growing in some plenty on waste ground in 

 Woolwich Arsenal. I was able, even thus early in the season, to 

 name several hybrids with tolerable confidence, and time has 

 shown my opinion to be correct. Among them were two specimens 

 which I thought would prove to be as above. One of these I care- 

 fully dug up and grew on at home ; my friend failed to find the 

 other again, and it may have been accidentally destroyed by the 

 ground being disturbed. My plant flourished, and I have no doubt 

 that it is what I had provisionally called it. The general facies 

 approaches E. lanceolatum, and the stigmas were almost as diotinctly 

 4-cleft as in that species. Both parents have their flowers white in 

 bud, changing to pink, and in this the hybrid resembled them. 

 The petioles are longer than in E. lanceolatum, especially about 

 half-way up the stem ; in this respect, as well as in their shape, 

 texture, and toothing, they clearly show a roseum-ovigin, which is 

 also indicated by the somewhat faintly 4-lined stem and the very 

 hoary capsules. These are somewhat shrunken ; but I was leaving 

 home for a month when the plant was gathered (June 15th), and 

 could not allow them to develop as far as was desirable. 



This particular hybrid is not likely to be often met with iu 

 England. Devon and Cornwall, the head-quarters of E. lanceolatum^ 

 produce K. loseum very rarely, and it hardly seems to be native in 

 either county ; also, while the latter is most at home on damp 

 ground or by streams, the former is usually a xerophilous plant, 

 loving hedgebanks, quarries, and open ground in light, sandy 

 soils. I have never observed the two together in my own West 

 Surrey neighbourhood, although both are locally abundant. The 

 only localities for lanceulutum x roseum. given by Haussknecht (I. c 

 p. 95) are Holthausen and the Kassenberg, near Miilheim-on-the- 

 Ruhr ; his specimens are described as approaching E. roseum in 

 habit, whereas mine takes more after E. lanceolatum. 



This combination has, however, also occurred spontaneously for 

 the last two or three seasons between the cultivated parents in my 

 garden at Milford, in forms evidently nearer to roseum. And here 

 I may remark that I have collected various plants from this garden. 



