368 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



(6) In vol. 124, fol. 10, no. 31 ; one of Buddie's specimens. 



(6) In vol. 311, fol. 61, no. 1 ; a specimen from Uvedale's her- 

 barium. 



In Bay's European herbarium, which is also kept separate, I was 

 unable to find any specimen of the plant. 



In the British Herbarium, the old specimens include one from 

 Sir J. Banks's collection, gathered near Woolwich; a plant from 

 Hyde Park in one of the fascicles issued by J. Dickson [Hort. Sice. 

 Britamiicum, 1793-1799); and another gathered by Hugh Davies 

 in the isle of Anglesey (about 1805). 



Curtis" gives an excellent figure of the plant, and in his account 

 of it says : — " We meet with it abundantly on most of the heaths 

 about London, particularly on Blackheath. . . . If the season prove 

 dry, as hath been most unusually the case this year, 1779, the 

 stalk is generally simple ; but if the ground be moist, it throws out 

 many stalks, which first spread on the earth, and afterwards become 

 upright, as is represented in the middle figure." 



Geographical Distribution in Europe. 



Moenchia quatemella is met with in all the countries of Western, 

 Southern, and Central Europe, and is absent from the northern and 

 eastern parts of the Continent. It is by no means a common plant ; 

 though it occurs, perhaps, more frequently than its records show, 

 for, being an early-flowering annual, it is easily overlooked. After 

 flowering the plant dries up, and becomes even less conspicuous, as 

 Bay pointed out in his first mention of the plant. The distribution 

 has been here worked out from authentic specimens and records, 

 and is more limited than local floras show. Not only has it been 

 confused with M. octandra, and eastern varieties of M. Mantica been 

 mistaken for it, but its evident introduction in Moldavia, Hungary, 

 and on the coast of Prussia, as well as other places, has been over- 

 looked. The species is found in England, Holland, Belgium, 

 France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, and in 

 two provinces of Austria (Kiistenland and Bohemia). The European 

 limits are as given below : — 



Northern limit, England, 55° 40'. — Specimens in H. C.Watson's 

 herbarium at Kew, from the Spindleston hills in Northumberland, 

 collected by W. Richardson in 1850, and from the basaltic rocks at 

 Howick by G. R. Tate in 1851. Found also on the basalt at 

 Ratchwood, near Belford, and further south in the same county at 

 Embleton (cf. Baker d Tait, Fl. Northumberland and Durham 

 [1867] , p. 135). 



Southern limit, Sicily, 37° 20'. — Todaro's specimens from Valde- 

 mone (PI. Sic. exs. no. 655), and Tornabene's from the base of 

 Mt. Etna, near Catania (Fl. Aetnea, i. [1889] , p. 181). The plant 

 occurs also on the Madouie hills in the Palermo district {Gumvie), 

 and other parts of the island, except in the Syracuse district. 



Eastern limit, Prussia, 17°. — At the village of Tarnast, near 

 Breslau, in the province of Silesia. Reported elsewhere in Germany, 



* Fl. Londinensis, ed. i. (1779), t, 136 [Sagina erecta) ; ed. ii. vol. i. fasc. 2, 

 t. 12 [Moenchia glauca). 



