ARENARIA GOTHICA FEIES, IN BRlTAIJ^. 3o7 



minatis glabris, basi attenuata subciliatis, sepalis carinatis petalis 

 capsulaque ovata brevioribus. — Herb. Norm. v. No. 34. 



A. ciliata /3. Walil. Suec. n. 509, a. Hartm. Scand. — utroque 

 loco quoad spec. Westrogotb. et Gottland. In petris calcareis 

 Vestrogothise, nempe in Kinnekulle in Martorps Klint, etc. ; etiam 

 Gothlandiae lecta." Fries, Mant. ii. p. 33. 



Kocb, ' Syn. Fl. Germ, et Helv.,' ed. 2, p. 128 (1843), observes:— 

 ** Arenaria gothica Fries, Nov. Fl.Suec. mant. ii. p. 33, in dit. nostrse 

 nondum lecta, est species quasi intermedia inter A. serpyllifoliam et 

 A. ciliatam. Eadicem, liabitum et folia A. serpyllifolicB, flores vero 

 A, ciliatcB babet." 



Mr. Bennett remarks tbat tbis plant is to be compared witb A. 

 ciliata L. and A. norcegica Gunn., to wbicb, witb tbe continental 

 A. multicaidis (L.) AVulf., it is closely allied. It would probably 

 have been ranked, at tbe most, as a sub-species by Dr. Boswell. 

 Nyman, in bis * Bidr. till Gottlands Flora,' makes it a var. 

 of ciliata, but in bis ' Conspectus Fl. Europ.' p. 115, it stands 

 as a species next to serpylUfolia, and witb two species between it 

 and ciliata, of which norvegica is there made a sub-species. With 

 A. serpylUfolia it could scarcely be confounded. From ciliata it 

 may be separated by the leaves being sparser, and not appressed to 

 the stem in the lower part (as they usually are in ciliata) ; the veins 

 are not nearly so prominent ; the armature of the stem is much 

 more like that of serpylUfolia than ciliata ; the capsules are larger 

 and longer, and the seeds are larger. From norvegica it may be 

 known by the whole surface of the plant being more hairy, with 

 transparent gland-like hairs, the margins of the leaves more ciliated, 

 with curved hairs ; the seeds more compressed, smaller, and not so 

 dark (or perhaps the present specimens have not fully ripened?). 



Grenier and Godron's description of their " /S. ? fugax " is "Racine 

 annuelle or bisannuelle, sans tiges steriles fasciculees ; petales egaux 

 au calice ; styles plus courts ; cahces fructiferes plus gonfles. A. 

 fugax Gay in herb." The term " without barren stems" must be 

 held in the Gotland plant anyhow, and possibly in the others, to be 

 only a partially true one : small stems do occur which in July show 

 no signs of flowering, though they might do so by September, and 

 I (Mr. Bennett's words are still quoted) have seen no late autumnal 

 states of any of the plants. It would be well if seeds of all four 

 forms could be sown in the same soil and grown under similar con- 

 ditions, to prove the permanence of the variations or their loss by 

 reversion to what was probably the original type, A. ciliata. 



Two of the specimens from Ribblehead sent to me by Mr. F. A. 

 Lees show each a large number of long slender shoots crowned by 

 flowers, springing from between the short-stemmed crowded ripe 

 capsules of the earlier growth. The others bear occasional flowers 

 as well as capsules, but these seem to be not so much a special 

 second growth as straggling late members of the first. 



Recurring to the question of habitat, Dr. N. H. Nilsson, of 

 Lund, Sweden, informs Mr. Bennett that he has gathered A. gothica 

 Fries, at 25 to 30 feet above the sea-level, growing between stones 

 and on calcareous rocks, with all the common Gotland plants, 



