130 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANT 



SPERGULARIA MARGINATA var. GLANDULOSA Drtjcb. 

 Br H. W. Pugsley, B.A., F.L.S. 



In perusing the new volume (iii.) of the Cambridge British 

 Flora, I notice (p. 23) that this plant is reduced to the status of a 

 subvariety, with a description " Shoot more or less strongly glandu- 

 lar." In Dr. Moss's description of the species the shoot is stated to 

 be " glandular or eglandular," and it may thus be assumed that if 

 the shoot can be termed strongly glandular, the plant belongs to the 

 subvariety glandulosa. 



The inflorescence of S. marginata, as seen in many British 

 saltmarsh localities, is more or less glandular, this feature being very 

 variable in this as in some other species of the genus, but such plants 

 are by no means necessarily identical with the form on which 

 Dr. Druce's variety was founded, the characters of which Dr. Moss 

 does not seem to have fully appreciated. The variety glandulosa 

 was described in the Report of the Botanical Exchange Club 

 for 1899, i. p. 599 (1901), from specimens collected on the chalk 

 cliffs at Dover, where it had been previously reported as Lepigonum 

 marinum in the Fhgtologist (N. S. v. 44: 1S61). The description 

 is not very complete, but the plant is said to have a woody rootstock, 

 and the pedicels and calyces distinctly glandular. 



It happens that in 1899 I collected this particular form on the 

 neighbouring cliffs at Lydden Spout, whence Dr. Druce subsequently 

 sent an example to the National Herbarium, and in 1906 I gathered 

 it also at the base of Abbot's Cliff, Dover. 



The plant has a woody rootstock and, compared with the typical 

 saltmarsh form, is compact in habit and much branched. These 

 features may be due to the situation in which it grows. The upper 

 part of the stem is more or less glandular, and the pedicels and 

 ■calyces very strongly so : a few glands also appear occasionally on 

 the uppermost leaves. In addition to these points of distinction, the 

 pedicels of the lower flowers, which Dr. Moss notes as markedly 

 longer than the calyx in S. marginata or sometimes twice as long, are 

 distinctly shorter than in the typical saltmarsh plant and often do not 

 greatly exceed the calyx. Moreover, the petals of the Dover plant 

 are quite deep pink in colour though becoming paler towards 

 the base. 



In view of all these differences, the retention of this plant as a 

 full variety seems justified, and Dr. Druce's name must apparently 

 stand, for although it is published under Buda media, the possibility 

 of changes of both the generic and specific terms is duly anticipated ! 



The features of this plant recall the hybrid S. marginata x salina, 

 as described and figured in the Cambridge Flora, but there is no 

 reason to suspect its hybrid origin, and it produces uniformly and 

 in abundance the round, broadly winged seeds characteristic of 

 ■S. marginata. 



I have collected this variety not only at Dover and Lydden Spout, 

 but (with paler flowers) on cliffs at Winspit, Dorset, and on wet, 

 stony ground on the shore at Llanfairfechan, Carnarvon. There are 



