162 NOTES ON A NEW SUBSPECIES OF EUPHRASIA OFFICINALIS. 



tomis, angustis, distantibus, decurrentibus, acie obtusissimo ; sporis 

 ignotis ; stipite solido, glabro, sequali vel basi attenuato, *5 cm. 

 long., 3 m. lat. 



Ad terrain, Monte Pichincha, Ecuador, 15,300 ped. alt. 

 No. 1537. 



Fomes senex N. et Mont. Machacbi. No. 1380. 



Eurotium herbariorum de By. In specim. Fomis senis (No. 1380). 



The specimens were put in spirit when gathered ; we may thus 

 regard this as a true record of Eurotium. 



Description of Plate. — a, Helosis Whymperi, nat. size ; c = capitulum, 

 p = peduncle, i = involucre, b, rhizome with shoots, c, male flower, mag- 

 nified, d, same, without perianth, i.e., stamens, e, female flower. 1, Can- 

 tharellus Whymperi, nat. size ; 2, same, x 8. 



NOTES ON A NEW SUBSPECIES OF EUPHRASIA 

 OFFICINALIS L. 



By Frederick Townsend, M.P., M.A., F.L.S. 



Many subspecies of the genus Euphrasia are alpine, and are in 

 perfection in autumn when most of the flowering plants of the 

 Alps are past and in seed, or have been devoured by the cows and 

 goats. The Eyebrights are evidently distasteful to these animals 

 as they pass them by untouched, hence the botanist who visits the 

 Alps in autumn will always find specimens in abundance, even in 

 tbe higher Alps, far above the limit of the pines. Latterly, my 

 visits to the Swiss Alps have been late in August, and during the 

 first two weeks of September, so that I have had special opportunity 

 of studying some of the subspecies of this to me very interesting 

 genus. 



In 1874, I found at Miirren, at an altitude of about 6400 feet, 

 and again at about 8000 feet, a plant which considerably puzzled 

 me. I then supposed it to be a hybrid, or a var. of E. 

 minima Schleich., and I so named it in my paper on E. 

 officinalis L., published in the ' Journal of Botany' for June, 1884. 

 Last year I spent several weeks at Miirren, where, after careful 

 study of all the forms of Euphrasia which occur in that neighbour- 

 hood, I became convinced that my plant was neither a hybrid nor a 

 var. of E. minima, but either a new var. of E. hirtella Jord., or a 

 new subspecies ; and that this form, found abundantly in company 

 with that very variable subspecies E. minima Scbleich., had hitherto 

 been confounded with it. I drew up the characters of my plant 

 and named it E. hirtella Jord., var. capitulata, from the upper 

 Iracts and flowers being crowded, and the latter collected together 

 at the summit of the stem. I sent a series of specimens to Mons. 

 Auguste Gremli, author of ' Excursionsflora fiir die Schweiz,' 

 and he wrote as follows : — " E. capitulata me parait maintenant 

 une bonne variete, ou plutot, une sous-espece voisine de hirtella. 

 On l'a confondu probablement, surtout les petits exemplaires, avec 



