58 THE JOURNAL OP BOTANY 



specimens of the larger form of S. saginoules from the same 

 locality. Hence I have had excellent opportunities of comparing 

 the one with the other, and both with the alHed species S. pro- 

 cumhens. 



In my opinion, the disputed Sagina has neither tlie appearance, 

 nor the characters, nor the general behaviour of a hybrid. It is, 

 in its essential features, constant over a very vast area in the 

 northern hemisphere : in Scotland, it grows on several mountains 

 in situations where its alleged parents are absent : the characters 

 of the plant remain constant in cultivation : its pollen is normal : 

 it produces, in abundance, plump capsules filled with good seeds ; 

 and there is, so far as I can judge, no evidence of any factorial 

 segregation. Under all these circumstances, I prefer to await the 

 results of actual experiments before accepting the hypothesis, so 

 ably maintained by Ostenfeld and Lindman, that the plant is of 

 hybrid origin. 



As great emphasis has been placed upon the alleged infertility 

 of the disputed plant, I repeat that in my garden it produced good 

 seed freely throughout the summers of 1912 and 1913. In 1912, 

 I sent samples of this seed to Druce and Ostenfeld. In early 

 September, 1913, the Eev. E. S. Marshall and I visited Ben 

 Lawers, and found that the little Sagina was quite fertile in its 

 native haunts. Professor P. Graebner also states (fide Druce in 

 Journ. Bot., loc. cit.) that the plant is fertile in the Botanic 

 Garden at Berlin. I suggest that the apparent sterility of many 

 herbarium specimens of this plant is due to their immaturity, 

 and to their having been collected too early."'' This explanation is 

 more especially likely to be correct when the "barren" herbarium 

 specimens possess tetramerous flowers, for, as is shown later 

 on, such flowers are common in the disputed plant in its early 

 flowering stage. 



It is true that the disputed plant propagates itself very readily 

 by vegetative means ; but all the British perennial members of the 

 genus reproduce themselves more or less freely and effectively in 

 what is essentially the same manner. 



The disputed plant is a little nearer S. procumhens than its 

 ally, though it will be generally admitted that this fact does not 

 demand the hypothesis of hybridity. 



A statement that the capsules of the disputed plant (" S. scotica 

 Druce ") are larger than those of its near ally (" S. saginoules L.") 

 is due to an accidental inversion of the names of the two plants 

 {vide Journ. Bot. 142, 1913). 



The first published account of the two plants was given by 

 Eeichenbach in his Icones Fl. Germ, et Helv. vol. v. (1841). Here 

 both plants were named and figured. Eeichenbach placed them 



* A parallel case may here be mentioned. Salicornia fruticosa L. is very 

 rarely found with ripe seeds on herbarium sheets : the seeds are not ripe until 

 late October or November, when few collectors are at work. On the other hand, 

 ripe seeds of S. glauca Del. are very common in herbaria : this species ripens its 

 seeds nearly two months earlier than S. frnticosn, and at a time therefore 

 when plant collectors are busy. 



