THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BRITISH PLANTS. 



35^ 



are 3-nerved, but this character requires to be checked by living 

 specimens of both plants, as some dried specimens of norverjica also 

 appear to have carinate sepals. *' Thus far it would seem to be ^. 

 fjothica, but Fries states that after ripening the seed the whole plant 

 oi (jothica dies and disappears, whilst norveyica is perennial. The 

 question therefore is, Is the Ribblehead plant annual or perennial ? 

 If it prove annual, we may accept it as being A. gothica ; but if it 

 prove perennial, it seems to me that we have a plant possessing all 

 the structural characters of r/otJiica, coupled with the perennial habit 

 of norvegica, and that we should look upon it as one plant with two 

 habits." 



THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BRITISH PLANTS.* 



Second Report of the Committee, consisting of Mr. A. W. Wills 

 [Chairman), Mr. E. W. Badger, and Professor Hillhouse, /or 

 the purpose of collecting information as to the DisappearaJice of 

 Native Plants from their Local Habitats. By Professor Hill- 

 house, Secretary. 



The Committee has given its attention in the first instance to 

 Scotland, and appends hereto such portion of the materials placed 

 at its disposal as, for any reason, it considers desirable to publish. 

 It has excluded a considerable number of plants of little interest, 

 and especially such as the records show to be recent introductions, 

 casuals, escapes, &c., the loss of which is only a return, therefore, 

 to an earlier, but still recent, state. There is little doubt that the 

 list, even thus restricted, will be considerably amplified hereafter. 



The plants recorded are numbered in accordance with the 

 ' London Catalogue,' ed. 8, in which the distribution census of each 

 plant will be found. Nearly all of the records are on the authority 

 of some competent botanist resident in the locality, and whose 

 initials, or some distinguishing initials, are appended. As has been 

 pointed out by more than one correspondent, scarce plants occa- 

 sionally well-nigh disappear in particular seasons, and hence the 

 records of other than frequent visitors are not fully reliable. 



The attention of botanists is particularly drawn to the records 

 under the numbers 52, 264, 374, 406, 570, 575, 687, 910, 932,993, 

 1018, 1020, 1478, 1695, and 1772, as giving examples of divers 

 ways, often very curious and interesting, in which plants can 

 become extinct. 



The attention of the Committee's correspondents has been in the 

 main confined to complete or threatened extinction ; but in addition 

 to this there is a general consensus of opinion that the rarer and 

 more conspicuous Alpine plants are less abundant than they used 

 to be. Amongst the localities specially mentioned are Clova and 

 Ben Lawers ; such plants (in addition to those given in the list) as 

 Saxifraga cernua, Alsine rubella, Gentiana nivalin, &c., are notably 

 less frequent than twenty years ago. Strange rumours have been 



* Bead at the British Association Meeting (Section D.) 1889. 



