SHOBT NOTES. 211 



Iceland is Angelica Archangelica, which is mentioned by Gerarde in 



1597, in these words (Herball., p. 847), "It groweth wilde 



in an Hand of the north called Island, where it a;roweth very high ; 

 it is eaten of the inhabitants, the barke being pilled oif, as we under- 

 stande by some that have travelled into Island, who were sometimes 

 compelled to eate heereof for want of other food ; and they report that 

 it hath a good and pleasant taste to them that are hungrie." 



DoESET Botany. — During a recent visit to Portland I was fortu- 

 nate in meeting with the three following rare plants : Valerianella 

 erioearpa, Desv., Spergularia rupestris, Lebel., Muscari comosum^ Mill. 

 The former is especially rare, having been found only once before in 

 Great Britain, by Mr. E. Lees, in the year 1845, in Worcestershire. It 

 grows somewhat abundantly among the rocks on the eastern side of 

 the island. Like Valeriatiella dentata, the barren cells of the fruit 

 are reduced to two narrow converging ridges enclosing an oval space, 

 but it is at once distinguishable by its persistent calyx-limb, which is 

 nerved, dentriculate, and obliquely-truncate, and unlike the typical 

 form it is glabrous. Spergularia rupestris, Mill., is a rare British 

 plant, but less so than the preceding. I observe in Mr, Hewett C. 

 Watson's '' Topographical Botany," part L, it is confined to nine 

 English counties and one Scotch. Professor Babington gives it as a 

 native of Ireland, I found it among the rocks on the eastern side 

 of the island. Muscari comosum, Lebel,, may probably have been 

 introduced with the corn. It was growing at the edge of a grassy 

 ridge, abutting a piece of cultivated ground on the south side of the 

 island, near the "Bill," The erect abortive flowers on the summit 

 and the pendent fertile ones below were as well developed as any I 

 have seen on the other side of the Channel, — J, C. Mansel-Pley- 

 DELL. — [We are informed by the Eev. W. W. Newbould that he 

 collected V. eriocarpa about two miles from Milford, Pembrokeshire, 

 some years ago, so that there are now known three localities, all in 

 the West of England. — Ed. Jotjrn. Bot.] 



YioLA peemixta and V, sepincola. — In all that I have seen of these 

 diflGlcult plants the spur of the anthers agrees with V. odorata, not 

 with V. hirta. I hope that if Mr, Blow has again the opportunity 

 he will attend to this character, which I have always found to be 

 constant in our Yiolas. If he has dry specimens of the flowers he can 

 easily determine the point by opening the corolla-spur. I always do 

 so, and fix down such opened specimens in the Herbarium, — C, C, 

 Babington, 



PiNGuicuLA vTjLGAEis, L., IN BEDFORDsmRE, — Twclvo years ago I 

 found, to my astonishment, several plants of ^inguicula vulgaris in 

 flower, growing on the steep side of a combe in the chalk hills, facing 

 the north, just within the southern boundary of Bedfordshire, about 

 half a mile to the north-east of Beacon Hill, which is half way be- 

 tween Hitchin and Barton. As the site is only about a mile from my 

 residence I have visited the spot frequently, and have found almost 

 every year several specimens in flower ; three years ago we counted 

 more than sixty plants of it, this year we have discovered but a very 

 few. I have had the pleasure of showing the plant growing in this 



p 2 



