212 THE .IOUKNAI, OF BOXANT 



Reverting to the British forms of J- montana, the variety major 

 Mert. & Koch, to which our large-headed plant of the western 

 coasts has been referred, may first be considered. Of this variety 

 there is an undoubted specimen in Herb. Mus. Brit, from the Nahe 

 Valley in the Palatinate (Wirtgen, Fl. Rhenan. Fasc, ix. 502), and 

 similar examples there and in Herb. C. Bailey from Eagenau ( Billot, 

 No. 50, as J. montana) and the - Harz District (Blankenburg) 

 respectively. These plants agree with the description in being tall 

 (5-6 dm.) and robust, with large flower-heads. They are sparingly 

 hairy ; with linear-oblong stem-leaves up to 30 mm. long and 4 mm. 

 broad; and ovate-acuminate, toothed bracts, scarcely equalling the 

 hemispheric heads of rather long-pedicelled Mowers. They d<> in it 

 resemble the plant of our rocky coasts, which clearly differs by being 

 of lower stature though equally robust, and in having broader, 

 thicker, and more pilose foliage, and flatter heads of more shortly 

 pedicelled flowers, subtended by much larger and broader brads. 

 But there is an inland specimen in Herb. Mus. Brit. (Woburn Sands, 

 Beds. 18S6. Hb. A. French) which seems inseparable from var. major. 

 andanother in Herb. C. Bailey (Sale, Cheshire, 1862). In Mr. Bailey's 

 collection there is Hungarian material sent out by Bidder as 

 var. major, less robust and more pilose than Wirtgen's plant and 

 approaching the specific type ; and intermediate forms may probably 

 be found in other districts. This variety is admitted by Rouy as a 

 French plant of occasional occurrence. 



The dwarf, prostrate, and sometimes densely tufted plant which 

 grows on the sandy cliffs and dunes around Bournemouth seems 

 to have been correctly identified with var. littoralis Fr., as generally 

 understood. But there is this notable discrepancy. Fries describes 

 the stems as " simplicissimi/' which presumably means unbranched 

 and would bring the plant towards var. maritima Duby. A fruiting 

 specimen at Kew, however, received from Fries and labelled " Scan. 

 Austr. Ystad. Leg. E. Fries," is much branched above, just like the 

 specific type late in the season; and other Swedish and North German 

 material in Herb. C. Bailey shows the same habit. Prof. Lindman 

 suggests in lift, that Fries's original description was taken from 

 a starved form at Ystad, and that subsequently, without amending 

 his diagnosis, he included with it more normal plants of the Swedish 

 shores, where J. montana apparently occurs in great variety, from 

 dwarf prostrate forms, branched or unbranched, with small heads, to 

 decumbent large-headed forms and erect plants inseparable from the 

 typical species. Prof. Lindman thinks the only valid feature of 

 var. littoralis is its prostrate habit, and does not regard it as a vert 

 good variety; and he further points out that its involucral bracts are 

 not ovate and entire, as described by Fries. 



The Bournemouth form, though much branched when well grown, 

 seems to be more uniform than the Swedish shore-plant, and to agree 

 more closely with Fries's original diagnosis and the exsiccata which he 

 issued. It is therefore thought best to retain Fries's name, as 

 is done by French authors for what appears to he a similar shore- 

 form widely distributed in France. 



"With regard to Dubv's variety nun-ilium, I Hiink that Willkomm 



