302 SPERGULA PENTANDRA IN IRELAND ? 



and open to no doubt. Nolte himself writes " P.filiformis Persoon," 

 yet he does not put the sign ! as having seen Persoon's plant. 



P. Friesii Rupr. Beit, zur PI. d. Russ. Reich. 4, p. 43, 1845 !— 

 The name of this plant, the P. mucronatus of authors (except Presl), 

 is as difficult to settle as that of filiformis Nolte. Some of the 

 names it appears under are given here : — 



P. compresmm Oeder, Flora Dan. t. 203 (17G5) ! ; Roth, Beit, 

 z. Bot. 2, p. 130 (1783). 



P. acutifulius Presl, Fl. Cecil, p. 37 (1819) ! 



P. compresmm (3. elongation Wahl. Fl. Suec. 1, p. 107, 1824, 

 fide Meyer. 



P. pusillus L., var. a, Cham, et Sch. Linnaea, 2, 171-2 (1827) ! 



P. pusillus L., var. major Fries, Nov. Fl. Suec. p. 48 (1828) ! 



P. compressum Smith, Engl. Fl. 1, p. 234 (1828) ! 



P. pusillus var. latifolius Meyer, Ch. Hann. p. 525 (183G). 



P. mucronatus Reich. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. v. 7, 15 (1844), 

 non Schrader? 



P. Oederi Meyer, Fl. Hann. Excur. 1849. 



P. acutifulius Meinshausen, Fl. Ing. Exsicc. 7, G13 (1861) ! 

 ? P. pusillus L., var. interruptm Schul. Oest. Fl. ed. 2 (1814). 



(To be continued.) 



SPERGULA PENTANDRA IN IRELAND? 



By James Britten, F.L.S. 



In the last number of the 'Annals of Botany,' Mr. Druce gives 

 his reasons for considering Spergula pentandra an Irish plant. The 

 greater part of his paper is occupied with a description of the 

 species, " adopted from the Fl. Hispan. by Wilkomm et Lange," with 

 bibliography and synonymy : but its chief interest lies in the 

 evidence adduced for accepting the plant as native. This is thus 

 stated by Mr. Druce : — " While recently engaged in examining the 

 plants in the Dillenian Herbarium in the Oxford collection, I came 

 upon a specimen of a Spergula, which from the seeds I saw was S. 

 pentandra. It was labelled ' 351. 8 from G. Sherard' : the number 

 refers to the page and paragraph of the 3rd edition of Ray's 

 Synopsis, and G. Sherard is William Sherard, the munificent donor 

 of plants and endowments to the Oxford Botanic Garden, sometime 



Consul at Smyrna In support of the contention that it is a 



native plant of Ireland we have the fact that the plant in question 

 is true S. pentandra, that it is labelled 'collect. G. Sherard,' that it 

 is preserved on the original numbered sheet, that it was in the 

 sheet of the Dillenian herbarium corresponding to the pagination 

 of his Synopsis, and the number on it agrees with the especial 

 paragraph where the plant is so aptly described ; and that we know 

 Sherard visited several parts of Ireland, including Drogheda and 

 the Mourne Mountains, in one of which places he most probably 

 collected the plant in question." 



