ON AN ISLE OF WIGHT GENTIAN. 263 



May the plant long enjoy its existence before it falls a victim 

 to certain raiDacious tourists, who, ignoring the ^Dresent and future 

 existence of other men as much entitled to the enjoyment of nature 

 as themselves, delight in bringing home bulbs by the thousand. 

 Thus has F. tristis, Heidi*. & Sart., been destroyed at Athens by 

 the Herr Hofgartner Schmidt. Thus, as I was told at Limone in 

 Piedmont, has F. j\I()(/f/rid(jii, in the Valle Amellina, been totally 

 eradicated by a well-known English bulb -amateur and tourist : his 

 guide, Bartolomeo Viola, beheving, no doubt, in generatio aquivoca, 

 wondered at there being no more flowers, as the gentleman had 

 only twice taken every bulb ! Apres nous le deluge. 



I add a short descriptive diagnosis : — 



'^^ Fritillaeia Grayana, Rchb.f., d Baker. — Ultra spithamsea, gra- 

 cilis, foliis in caule quinis sen quaternis infimis cuneato- 

 ligulatis, breve acutis, inflorescentia uniflora seu biflora, 

 bracteis hnearibus, acutis, elongatis, floribus longe pedicel- 

 latis pedunculatisque, nutantibus (0-02 m. longis), sepalis 

 externis ligulatis acutis, internis bene latioribus, omnibus 

 apicibus scabris, foveis juleoformibus (? si recte video) fila- 

 mentis antheras quater superantibus, stylo ad medium fere 

 trifido. 



Hah. California, 1866 ; Bohmder, n. 4654 ! 



ON AN ISLE OF WIGHT GENTIAN. 

 By Fred. Stratton, F.L. S. 



On the 23rd of May last I received from Dr. John Grieve, of 

 Glasgow, who was then staying at Ventnor, some specimens of a 

 Gentian which he had gathered on the down belimd Steephill Castle, 

 and which he referred to the variety /3. of Gentiana Amarella, L., 

 noticed by Dr. Bromfield in the ' Flora Vectensis.' A few days 

 afterwards I went to Steephill, and was surprised at the great 

 abundance of the plant. It grew mostly in large patches from five 

 to ten feet across, and was, fi-om its profusion and the dark brow^nish 

 purple leaves and calyces, a conspicuous feature in the herbage of 

 the chalk down. 



There are several characters in which this Gentian differs from 

 both its nearest allies, G. AmareUa and G. camj^estris. First, the 

 time of flowering, which in those constitutes them autumnal- 

 flowering plants, in this places it amongst spring flowers. A 

 considerable proportion of the plants had on the 27th of May well- 

 advanced capsules (on the 17th of August only the withered stems 

 and capsules full of ripe seed were to be found; a rather thick- 

 set pyramidal form of ordinary G. AmareUa, in full bloom, having 

 taken the place of its early-flowering neighbour, and in almost 

 equal abundance). This character, when it occurs in isolated 

 plants and is unaccompanied by any other divergence from their 



