EEPOET OF THE BOTANICAL EXCHANGE CLUB. 283 



By British botanists it has till within a few years been assumed to be 

 Sorhus scandica of Fries, the Cratcegus Aria var. a. scandica of Linn., 

 Amcen., and the C. Aria, 3 suecica, Linn. Sp. PL So far back as 

 1851, however, Prof. C. C. Babington in the " Botanical Gazette,'* 

 vol. iii., p. 34, in speaking of the (English) Sorhus scandica, at that 

 time the only one recognised, says, "Nearly allied to and, as I think, 

 not distinct from this, is the S. latifoUa, Pers." In this, as far as 

 the English P. scandica goes, I quite agree with him. It was not 

 until the year 1869, five years after the description of P. scandica for 

 *' Engl. Bot.," ed. iii., was written, that it dawned upon my mind that 

 the English scandica was not the same as the Scandinavian. See the 

 report of Bot. Exchange Club, 1869, p. 11, in which I mention that 

 the Devonshire specimens show an approximation towards S. latifolia^ 

 but at that time I fell into two errors from having only imperfect 

 Continental specimens. I began to think that the English scandica 

 was S. Mougeoti. The other error will be mentioned below under 

 Pyrus fennica. This error was confirmed by receiving a Continental 

 specimen of P. latifolia, as I now believe labelled Mougeoti, which 

 led me to think that P. Mougeoti and latifolia were forms of one plant. 

 More recently the receipt of further specimens of S. Mougeoti and 

 latifolia, and the perusal of Mons. Grenier's " Elore de la Chaine 

 Jurassique," showed me that S. Mougeoti and latifolia were not 

 identical, and that the English scandica was the Continental latifolia. 

 The most recent contribution to my knowledge has been five specimens 

 named Sorhus latifolia, in Dr. Keichenbach's collection, which Mr. 

 "Watson kindly placed at my disposal. These five specimens include 

 nearly the whole range of forms of our British plant which have come 

 under my observation, so that now I have no doubt that to the plant 

 now under consideration the name latifolia ought to be applied. 

 P. latifolia differs from P. eu-aria in having the leaves ultimately 

 subcoriaceous, 5- to 9-veined, with the veins much less prominent 

 beneath, the under surface at first with a very dense, greyish, cream- 

 coloured tomentum below, and a less dense one above. The tomen- 

 tum on the upper surface remains until the leaves have attained to 

 about half their full size or more, and traces' of it may even be found 

 at the time the plant begins to flower. The tomentum on the under 

 surface becomes much less dense than in P. eu-aria and rupicola, so 

 that the colour of the leaf becomes of a greyish green and not white. 

 Ultimately it becomes so thin that the substance of the leaf 

 may be seen in places nearly denuded. The leaves vary 

 greatly in breadth from sub rotund -ovate to oval-oblong : they are 

 always more or less lobed, though the lobes vary much in depth, the 

 second lobe from the base being generally the most prominent, though 

 occasionally the first equals if not exceeds it. These lobes are always 

 deltoid or triangular in outline, more or less distinctly serrated, and 

 each lobe terminates in a tooth larger and more accuminate and acute 

 than the others. The extremes in British specimens lie between 

 specimens sent from Symond's Yatt, Gloucestershire, by Rev. Augus- 

 tin Ley, in -which the leaves are nearly as broad as long, with large 

 and very acute lobes, to the Leigh Wood plant, figured as P. scandica 

 in '* E. B.," ed. iii,, p. 484, in which the leaves are only about half as 

 broad as long and the lobes short and much blunter. Mr. Watson 



