WORTHIXOTOX GEORGE SMITH 247 



120) may be mentioned. Occasionally, however, his notes related 

 to flowering plants — e.q. those on ''Bedfordshire Plants " (Journ. 

 JBot. 1885, 220) and on' " The Box in Britain " ( Jom-n. But. 1901, 

 73), the latter containing antiquarian as well as botanical matter. 



A feAV words may be added as to Smith's other activities. As 

 soon as he had settled in Dunstable, he threw himself with enthusiasm 

 into the political life of the town, in the archaeological and anti- 

 quarian aspects of which he also took much interest. He was a keen 

 and incisive combatant in the Radical interest : I have now before me a 

 Christmas card issued in 1900 " in pleasant commemoration of 

 six valiantly fought consecutive battles, all happil}^ crowned with 

 victory to the Liberal Party of South Bedfordshire over the combined 

 forces of Tories, Unionists, Primrose Leaguers, and Mercenaries." 

 This card is elaborately symbolic, as the letter which accompanied 

 it explains ; a copy was sent to nearty every Liberal elector in 

 Sovith Beds. Smith was very clever at this kind of thing, in which 

 his architectural training (traces of which could be detected in his 

 plant di-awings) stood him in good stead : " We had a grand fight 

 here," he says, "at last election: 1 produced large cartoons for 

 public exhibition : these and my head, 25 feet across, were shown by 

 lantern on a sheet in the open air." In 1903 he received the freedom 

 of the borough — no freeman had been elected since the foundation of 

 the borough b}' Henry I. — ^"in appreciation of the eminent services he 

 had rendered to his country in connection with his profession and 

 his munificent gifts to the Corporation of Dunstable." In the 

 following year he wrote and illustrated a little book on Dunstable 

 and its Surroundings for the Homeland Association. In 1897 he 

 was appointed Secretary for Bedfordshire by the Society of Anti- 

 quaries. 



For some of the facts contained in this notice I am indebted to a 

 printed circular issued shortly after Smith's death by his eldest son, 

 Mr. Arthur E. Smith. It is remarkable that no reference to one who 

 has for so many years held a prominent position in the English 

 botanical and horticultural world should appear in Who's Who, in 

 which so many obscure and insignificant folk find place. 



James Britten. 



CEKASTIUM SEMIDECANDRUM L. 

 By C. E. Salmon, F.L.S. 



The normal form of Crrastium semidecandrum one meets with on 

 dry heaths, open downs, wall-tops, and elsewhere in Britain, is a plant 

 of more or less small stature (2-8 cm. high), with stem-leaves 

 obtusely pointed, flowers in a fairly compact cyme at the summit of 

 the stem, and with the capsule when ripe being almost straight and 

 protruding but slightly from the calyx. 



Botanizing in 1914 between Bramley and Catteshall in Surrey I 

 came across, in a cultivated field, a great quantity of a Cerastium (vary- 



