150 THE JOURNAL OF EOTAIfY 



are those originally collected, so that they are all evidently fairly 

 long-lived perennials. 



P. maritima, from Poole, has grown into a dense tuft, with many 

 erect, closely-matted branches, on which last ^^ear's dead leaves and 

 peduncles, and brown leaf-sheaths from previous years remain. The 

 earliest two or three leaves of the new season's growth, which has but 

 lately commenced, are subulate, about 12 mm. long and less than 

 1 mm. broad, suberect, fleshy, nerveless, obscurely channelled above, 

 and with an abruptly dilated base sheathing the stem. The next 

 leaves are much longer, linear, subacute, soon attaining 10 cm. in 

 length, but scarcely exceeding 2 mm. in breadth. They possess 

 similar basal sheaths, and become successively more involute rather 

 than channelled, and recurved towards the apex. They still show no 

 definite midrib. At about the seventh leaf the denticulate margin 

 sometimes appears. 



In P. alpina the rootstock is divided into horizontally spreading 

 branches, which are naked and scarred from the deca}^ and disappear- 

 ance of the previous year's foliage. The leaves do not sheathe the 

 stem as in P. maritima, and the first ones, which appear some weeks 

 earlier than those of P. maritima, are triangular-ovate, 5-6 mm. long 

 and 4 mm. broad near the base, acute or acuminate, flat and herbaceous, 

 distinctly 8-nerved, and spreading or slightly recurved in a small 

 rosette. These earliest leaves are fugitive and are quickly followed 

 by numerous others, which are linear-lanceolate in form, 2 -5-3 cm. 

 long and 6 mm. broad below the middle, acute, flat above and 

 carinate underneath, with 3 distinct nerves, and the margins some- 

 times distantly denticulate. These leaves soon become spreading- 

 reflexed, covering the shorter primordial ones and forming a dense 

 rosette. While in January a tuft simulates a miniature P. major, at 

 this date the resemblance lies with P. lanceolata. 



The P. maritima from Crianlarich, though much dwarfer, is 

 essentially identical with the Poole Harbour plant, showing the same 

 erect branching and similar persistent leaf-sheaths. Its early leaves 

 are linear-subulate, 15-20 mm. long and about 1 mm. broad, obtuse, 

 nearly erect, fleshy, nerveless, but flat above and neither channelled 

 nor involute. 



With the advance of spring the leaves of P. alpina become 

 longer (4-5 cm.) and relatively narrower, till at length they are not 

 easily distinguishable from those of the Crianlarich P. maritima^ 

 which by that time form a spreading rosette. Both plants then 

 have a quite different aspect from the Poole P. maritima, which 

 continues to produce throughout the summer suberect leaves that may 

 attain 25 cm. or more in length. 



In my garden P. alpina flowers earlier and much more sparingly 

 than the other two plants, and does not develop fruit. The two 

 forms of P. maritima produce abundant fruit, but as no seedlings 

 have ever appeared in their vicinity, I doubt whether any seed is 

 perfected. 



