294 SHOUT NOTES, 



Cornbury Park, and 13 miles west of Middleton Stoney. All the 

 Oxfordshire localities are on the oolitic limestone * 



The knowledge of the wider area naturally raises the question 

 whether or not it is a native species. Mr. AVatson regards it as a 

 denizen, and when it appeared to be limited to a solitary spot on the 

 side of a turnpike road this seemed very probable ; but more recent dis- 

 coveries entirelv alter the aspect of the question. Mr. Saunders says 

 of his locality : ' " The plants grow close by the roadside m that part 

 of the lane immediately under Lord Jersey's Park, but at a distance 

 from gardens or buildings. This lane is generally supposed to be the 

 remains of an old Eoman road, and the surface of the soil has probably 

 been undisturbed for ages." The habit of the plant at Cornbury Park 

 differs from that of most of our ordinary British Labiatse, flourishing 

 abundantly in closely bitten pasturage, exactly as Mr. Britten informs 

 me he has seen it in Prance. In the Pinstock close it was growing on 

 a hill-side among tufts of coarse grass. It seems more probable that 

 these localities are the remains of a more extensive distribution than 

 that it has been introduced into them. 



SHORT NOTES. 



Etimex etjpestris, Le Gall, a British Species. — This past summer 

 I have been giving some time to the study of a Dock, which occurs in 

 plenty on several parts of the coast near Plymouth, differing in some 

 respects from all the generally recognised British species, but agreeing 

 BO well with Riimex rupestris, Le Gall, as described in some of the 

 Continental Ploras, that I have no doubt it is this. In Babington's 

 "Manual" (ed. 7 and some previous ones) there may be seen a remark 

 as to the probability of R. rupestris being a Jersey species. I have 

 been favoured by Mr. Baker with a Continental specimen of R. rupestris, 

 obtained from a plant cultivated by M. Gay in the Luxemburg Garden, 

 1834, from ^seed obtained at Cap de Carteret, Manche, in 1831. A 

 comparison of it with the Plymouth Dock has left no doubt in my 

 mind of the identity of the two. I first found my plant on the 26th of 

 July last at Wembury, about five or six miles to the east of Plymouth, 

 growing in plenty on a strong shore, associated with R. crispiis and 

 R. conglomcratiis ; between which two I was at first disposed to think 

 it mightbe a hybrid. Since then I have found it two or three miles further 

 east, on the shore of Bigbury Bay, growing on low damp rocks; and 

 also on the Cornish coast, near Port Wrinkle ; and at Downderry, in 

 the parishes of Sheviocke and St. Germans. I believe it to be entirely 

 confined to the open coast, and not to be one of those species that 

 follow the salt water up the sides of estuaries and creeks. It bears 

 considerable resemblance to R. co7iglomeratus, but the branches are 

 much less leafy, stiffer, and straighter, forming a compact panicle, so 

 that its outline is more like that of R. ncmorosus. The cauline leaves 



* Other apparently different localities in and near Charlbury Park are given 

 by Mr. Linton and the Kev. H. E. Fox in the Reports of tho Bot. Exchange 

 Chib (see "J. Bot.," 1872, p. 244, and this volume). 



