356 ARENARIA GOTHirA FRIES, IN BRITAIN, 



Only a botanist, however, would be likely to understand the 

 value, or to possess the seeds, of so rare and little-known a form as 

 (jothica or norvegica. And surely, now that the importance of the 

 study of distribution is so fully recognised, no botanist lives, 

 capable of committing the scientific crime of creating false facts to 

 lead investigators astray. Yet there are traditions, at any rate, 

 that such things have been, — and we know how even high-minded 

 Eobert Dick, of Thurso, confused somewhat the botany of his 

 home-county, by transplanting favourite plants from their original 

 stations to others like them, supposing that in so doing he was 

 serving truly the interests of his fellows. 



I have said " gothica or norvegica'' above, because Mr. F. A. 

 Lees holds the view — as does Mr. J. G. Baker — that A. norvegica^ 

 ciliata, and gothica, really are one species; and he has expressed 

 the idea that seeds of the Unst norvegica, sown in a high, dry 

 (comparatively), and barren spot like that at Ribblehead, would 

 originate a series of plants less succulent, more tufty, with more 

 drawn-out leaves, increased apiculus, and longer peduncles, corres- 

 ponding to the gothica form. He negatives ciliata seeds as possible 

 originals, because of the absence of the characteristic ciliation and the 

 greater fleshiness, — this, too, on limestone like that of Ben Bulben, 

 at an equal height, and in a spot where, as at Ben Bulben, other 

 plants tend not only to preserve but to increase the growth of hairs 

 and cilia. 



Mr. Arthur Bennett, with characteristic kindness, has obli- 

 gingly given me the following very full particulars of the synonymy, 

 bibliography, distribution, and distinctive features of A. gothica. 



Arenaria gothica Fries, Mant. ii. pp. 33 — 34, 1839, et Summ. 

 Veg. Scand. p. 158, 1846. 



A. gothica Fr., Flor., Dan. Supp. fasc. i. t. 15, 1853. 



A. gothica Fr., Zetterstedt, Om vaxt pa Vestergotlands, p. 44, 

 1876. 



A, ciliata L. /?., Wahl. Flor. Suec. p. 295, 1831, in Kongl. Vet.- 

 Acad. Handl. (Stockholm). 



A. ciliata L. /3. Wahl., Nyman, Bidr. Gottlands Fl. p. 141, 1842. 



A. ciliata L. /3. 7 fugax Gr. et Godr. Fl. Fr. vol. i. p. 259, 1848. 



A. ciliata L. /3. gothica Fr., Eisen & Stuxberg, Gotlands Faner. 

 och Thall. p. 29, 1869. 



A. gothica Fr. Hartm. H. Skan. Fl. ed. 11, p. 243, 1879. 



Distribution : — Sweden : In the I. of Gotland ; Kraklingbo, 

 about halfway on the road from Hiedeby, going towards the north- 

 east side of Thorsbergen ; Visby ; Fleringe near Harn ; Fiiron ; 

 on the mainland at Kiunekulle, in West Gothland. Switzerland* : 

 Borders of the Lake Joux. England ; Ribblehead. 



First found by Eosen (Gotland), and again by Hr. Hogberg in 

 1840. 



"Arenaria gothica caulibus e basi ramosa erectis teretibus 

 simplicibus, alis nudis, foliis ovalibus lanceolatisque abrupte acu- 



* Named as France in Gr. and Godr., but the lake is clearly in Switzerland, 

 Canton Vaud. 



